Falling Veils
by JuniperGentle
Summary: Love was never as simple as the stories made it out to be, but they had to find that out on their own. Would the adventure be worth the risk? Would the prize be worth the cost? My February challenge, somewhat similar in style to 'Awakenings', but romance style! New pairing every day. Now complete. Day #27 - Madoka/Aleksei. Day #28 - Sophie/Julian.
1. The Shopping List

_Welcome to my first challenge-to-myself of 2014 – the Month Of Romance._

_Those who have known me for a while will know that I deliberately shy away from writing romance, mostly because I'm quite proud of running the Friendship corner almost solo. But I'm a writer, and I want to be a better one, so I'm challenging myself to write in the areas I believe myself to be weakest in, starting with romance._

_This is a **huge** challenge for me. I never write romance full stop. However, for one month only I am going to do my very best to write up some of the pairings I've seen around the fandom... plus some others, because why not mix it up? _

_Some quick notes:_

_- I am **NOT** taking requests. If you want a particular pairing, you can ask me if it shows up, or you can just wait to see if it appears – who knows? I might have your new OTP hiding in my list somewhere!_

_- No boy appears more than twice as a romantic lead. So if you've seen two chapters with Tsubasa as the focus, he won't show up as part of the main pairing again. He may drift in as a side-character, or part of a secondary pairing in the background, but he won't take the male lead again. I love my minor characters (and my crack pairings), and so I want them to get a good showing._

_- I will be focusing on boy/girl relationships only, because I can't write romance at the best of times, let alone yaoi. Sorry._

_- At the top of each chapter will be the day, the chapter name and the pairing for the day. Sometimes, however, there will be a single name and a question mark, because some of the stories will be more effective if you do not know the other identity until the end. (I'd love to hear your thought processes in those chapters as you work out who it is!)_

_- The romances will be set at different times in the relationships. I'll flag it when it's established._

_Well, here we go. Hope you enjoy my first attempts. Comments and constructive criticism always welcomed._

* * *

**Day 1**

**The Shopping List**

**(Madoka/Gingka)**

She wasn't sure why they'd started doing it. It was a bit silly, if she thought about it. No-one else would really understand.

_Milk_

_Bread_

_Ice-cream_

_Three red screwdrivers_

She shook her head and unpinned the list from the fridge. Well, at least that one was fairly easy. The memory of hunting down lime-flavoured chocolate still made her shudder sometimes. Maybe the screwdrivers would persuade Gingka to help her put together the new display cabinet for the shop, but she wasn't convinced.

"Gingka! I'm going shopping!" she called up the stairs.

"Okay!" his voice floated back down to her. "I'm going out to practice in the park with Kenta; see you later!"

It had been about two months since they had started this silly game, only a few weeks shorter than Gingka had been living in her house. It wasn't that he didn't want to live with his father – he did, but Ryo had been given a room over his office during the Nemesis Crisis so that he could stay close in case of emergency, and it wasn't big enough for two. Madoka had offered her place almost immediately. Her dad was fine with it, because then he didn't have to worry about his daughter being alone in the house during the days when he had to go to the neighbouring city to run his very successful blade-mechanics training program at the college there. It was win-win for everyone, and Gingka had even insisted on helping out by doing the shopping every other time.

That was where it had begun. Madoka put a piece of paper on the fridge for the various people in the house to write down things that were running out, and Gingka had done exactly that for a couple of weeks before what she was now calling 'the fun request' appeared.

The first had been for a see-through shower-cap, which she had wondered about for a couple of days before discovering that Gingka wasn't wearing the cap, _Pegasus_ was. Or, more precisely, the blade was wrapped up in the shower-cap so that it could stay close to Gingka at all times, even in the bath (since Nemesis, Gingka had been more than a little reluctant to let his beloved blue blade out of his sight).

And so when it came round to his turn to get the shopping, she had jokingly written _Powder-puff_ on the bottom of the list, and went back to her studying. To her astonishment, he had solemnly placed a pale blue powder-puff on her desk the moment that he got back, and managed to keep a straight face for almost ten seconds before both of them collapsed into laughter.

After that, they took turns writing strange, unusual or outright _difficult_ requests on the bottom of the shopping list, and it turned into a game. She normally went for strange foodstuffs – her dad had loved the dumplings she made the day that Gingka spent four hours hunting for suet.

He got his revenge the next time the list went up: _forty-nine LED bulbs. _It had taken her almost as long to find a shop that sold them as it had taken Gingka to work out where the suet was (he told her later that he'd thought it was a sort of vegetable).

But the powder-puff was still sat on top of her wardrobe.

Not that it mattered. As long as this game went on, she was happy to get things for him, because it made _him_ happy to do it, and Gingka didn't smile as much as he used to.

Madoka had been slightly surprised to find that she missed his smile.

* * *

"That took _forever_ to find," Gingka declared, ceremoniously dumping a package of venison sausages in front of her. "What _is_ venison, anyway?"

"Deer," she said absently, attention fixed on getting a sliver of metal out of Fang Leone's fusion wheel. Kyouya had got into a battle with Da Shan when the Chinese team had dropped by for their bi-monthly visit, and it had caused significant damage.

"What, with the horns and the white tails and the... those deer?"

"Yes."

"But... but they're _pretty,_" he protested. She lifted her head to look at him, raising an eyebrow, and he couldn't hold her eyes. "Okay, but this had better taste good."

"It will," she promised. "But that's for Sunday. I'll need to go shopping before then, because someone finished off the mushrooms for lunch today."

"Not me!"

She shook her head. "It was Kenta, actually. He came looking for you. He wants a battle, I think. I told him you'd be along as soon as you got back – he's in the park."

Gingka was almost out of the door before she managed to remind him that the shopping bag was still over his shoulder.

* * *

_Cinnamon_

_Rolls_

_Biscuits_

_Pineapple rings_

_Coffee_

_A green blanket_

"Is there a reason it has to be green?"

"Yes."

"Any particular green?"

He glanced up at her from his seat on the sofa, where he'd been talking to Masamune over the webcam. "No. You pick."

She got him one in a green that wouldn't clash too badly with his hair, and on his list she wrote _Cardamom _and_ Star anise._ She felt like making pastries.

* * *

"What do you want for dinner?"

Gingka yawned and glanced sideways at her. "Dunno. Nothing too hot, though."

He had a point. It was the hottest week of the year, and none of the group had the energy to do more than lie on the grass by the river. Tsubasa and Yuu, who had swung by to drop off Libra for a tune-up, were actually _in_ the river, paddling, or just happily floating in the case of Tsubasa.

"We could make some sandwich fillings or something," Kenta suggested, stretching lazily in the heat. "That wouldn't take too much work."

"Mmm," Madoka agreed. "I'd need to go and get some stuff, though – it's my turn, isn't it, Gingka?"

"Yeah." He sounded almost asleep. "Go later, when it's cooler. No point carrying all that stuff in this heat. Stay here."

Madoka wasn't going to argue with that. "What do you guys want on the sandwiches anyway?" she asked, sitting up.

"Stuff?" Benkei said, and Kenta rolled over enough to poke him.

"Don't care," Gingka murmured. "Oh, but if you're writing a list I need to put something on there, don't I?"

"Just tell me. I'm sure I'll remember."

"A pair of warm, fingerless gloves."

"Gloves. In summer." She used her least impressed voice. "You're sure?"

He grinned, a slow, lazy smile that lit up his face and made his eyes sparkle. "Yep."

She shook her head in despair, and lay back down next to him, moving a bit closer to share the shade of the umbrella he'd set up.

* * *

"Dad? Can you come with me this week?"

Madoka's father looked over the top of his book at her. "Where to?"

"The shops. Gingka and I have this weird game that we're playing with the shopping lists where we write a silly thing on the bottom of them each time for the other person to get, but I need you to come with me to buy this one."

Her father was immediately on his feet, looking almost angry. "If he wants me to get alcohol, I'll string him up by his hair."

Madoka shook her head very fast. "No, no, no, nothing like that. He just needs a sharp knife."

"A _knife_?" her father echoed. "Whatever for?"

She shrugged. "No idea. Then again, I asked him for Wensleydale last time and I still haven't thought of something I can use it in."

"Maybe he wants to learn how to cook like you?" he suggested. "He's a smart kid and he likes his food; bet he'd love that."

"I might steal the knife," she admitted. "Our old one is starting to go blunt."

"Well, I'll come along and get it, then," her father said. "Maybe get a spare one for us."

Madoka's eyes widened and she shook her head. "No, it's fine," she protested. "There's nothing I can't use the bread knife for." She looked down. "It's not like our shop is getting many customers right now."

Her father leaned down and kissed her on the top of her head. "You're a good girl, Madoka," he said fondly. "But you really don't have to worry about money, not for things that we need."

Again she shook her head. "It's fine, really, Dad. The bread-knife is almost as good as the proper knife was when it was sharp."

He nodded slowly. "Just make sure to tell me if we do need something, Madoka. I won't have my daughter left in need of something just because she thinks our finances can't take it. The shop is always quiet at this time of year – that's why I'm taking on some extra classes at the college. We'll get through this. We always do."

* * *

It was her turn to do the shopping again – they'd run out of milk (Kyouya's fault, almost certainly).

"Gingka!" she called. "Anything you need to add to the list?"

"It's already on there," he said, wandering into the kitchen. "But I remembered this morning – we're out of coffee beans, and Tsubasa said he might drop by with Hyoma and Hikaru this week."

"I'll add them, then." She pulled the paper off the fridge, and underneath _A piece of leather_ carefully printed _Coffee beans (for Tsubasa)._ "And what do you need leather for, anyway?"

"A project," he said mysteriously, and if she hadn't known him as well as she did, she might have said he was blushing.

She felt like making a more exotic dessert than usual, so when it was his turn, she put _Dragon fruit_ on the bottom of his list, before hesitating and adding _and mulberry juice._

* * *

Madoka was down in the basement workshop, giving Sagittario a tune-up, when Gingka bounced down the stairs with a grin on his face. "You got it!" he crowed. "Thank you! Oh, hi, Hikaru, Tsubasa."

"Hey," Hikaru said, waving from her seat on the sofa where she was inputting some tournament data. Tsubasa just glanced up from the book he was reading and then looked down again.

"I can't believe you managed to find one so fast," Gingka continued to Madoka. "I thought you'd have to hunt for ages."

"They're not that rare, Gingka. Any decent craft shop sells them." She had been rather surprised by his request that week – an eyelet punch. Then again, he'd asked for leather the time before, so perhaps his project required it. She'd casually mentioned that she'd like to see this project when it was finished, but he had almost immediately gone silent and wouldn't talk about it. Confusing boy.

"Well, it's brilliant. Oh – I won't be in for dinner, Kyouya wants a battle and Benkei's insisting on burgers afterwards and who am I to say no to burgers when Kyouya's paying?"

She looked up at him, confused. "Why is Kyouya paying?"

"Because the loser is paying, and it definitely won't be me!"

_Boys._

"Well, be careful," she said, leaning over Sagittario and working her tiniest brush into the crevices to get all the dust out. "Be back before it gets dark."

"Yes, Madoka."

"And try not to do too much damage? I've already fixed Pegasus twice this month."

"Okay!"

And with that and a clatter of steps, he was out of the door. Madoka grinned to herself as she went back to her work, already planning the next item on the shopping list. She'd been planning to make curry for a while, especially as Hikaru was staying for a couple of days, and it would be the perfect opportunity to get Gingka to go hunting for something very, very hard to find in ordinary shops. After all, she couldn't think of anywhere local that sold one hundred percent cocoa chocolate – and if he tried eating any on the way home, he would regret it.

"You two are so married it's not even funny," Hikaru said suddenly, and Madoka sat bolt upright in shock.

"_What_?" she spluttered, for a second not quite sure exactly _why _she was protesting.

"Come on," Tsubasa said, looking up, his strange half-smile barely ghosting across his face. "You have this strange flirty thing going on with the shopping lists, you can read each like a book and he smiles twice as much when you're around – and your whole being relaxes the moment he walks through the door."

"He's my best friend," Madoka told him firmly. "I've known him for four years and he _lives in my house_. Of course I can understand him. And the shopping list thing is just a game."

Tsubasa sighed and shook his head, and this time the smile was a little clearer. "Madoka, I know how to read people. It's one of the main reasons why Gingka's father employs me as a special agent."

"_Friends,_" she said sternly.

"Well, maybe he doesn't think so," Tsubasa said gently, and went back to his book.

* * *

_Eggs_

_Bread_

_Tomato sauce_

_Ginger_

_Margarine_

_A box_

Well, that was odd. Alright, it was _normal,_ by other people's standards, but for them it was definitely odd.

"Going shopping!" she sang, guessing that he was down in the basement. Her intuition proved correct a second later when his head popped up.

"Oh," he said when he spotted her. "Um, about the..."

"How big a box?" she asked, knowing what he was concerned about.

He shrugged and indicated with his arms. "Maybe this big?"

"And that's all?"

"Yeah. Oh, cardboard if you can get it, but plastic if you have to."

Hiding the strange sense of disappointment, she nodded and went to grab her bag as Gingka darted back down the stairs. A box it would be, then.

* * *

She'd had an awful week. First, her dad had got into an accident driving to work, and whilst he was fine, his car had been wrecked. But he couldn't stop teaching – he was being paid by the hour and it wasn't like there was anyone else in the household who earned a wage. So he had managed to get a hotel room for the week in the other city, meaning that Madoka and Gingka were completely alone in the house. Then Kyouya had stormed into the shop spitting fire and hissing like a cat with its tail trodden on, because somehow Dr Ziggurat had been cleared of all charges and was back in the blade-research industry. A call to Ryo Hagane had managed to secure a couple of WBBA agents inside the new research building, and so far nothing had seemed amiss, but only time would tell. And then, just when she thought that nothing else could go wrong, her delivery of parts had been delayed by a storm, and so she couldn't fix Tsubasa's Earth Eagle before his tournament. He had won, but it was mostly due to his own extraordinary skill, and Eagle had been almost totally destroyed. She had apologised to him countless times, but even though he had assured her that it wasn't her fault and that he forgave her, she couldn't forgive herself for the pain in his eyes.

By the time that she got round to facing the shopping, the list was very long.

_Bread_

_Self-raising flour_

_Milk_

_Sugar_

_Tea_

_Pizza_

_Olive oil_

_Bananas_

_Apple juice_

_Peppers_

_Courgette_

_Noodles_

_Spring onions_

_Garlic_

_Olives_

_Beans_

_Sweetcorn_

_Potatoes_

_Tuna_

Oh yes. She'd been in the mood for stir-fry that week. She actually had to turn the list over to find Gingka's request.

_A smile. I think you lost yours._

She couldn't help it. The corners of her mouth turned up the slightest bit. That boy. He knew her so well.

By the time that she got to the end of the road, her smile was back for good. She'd put hyssop and horseradish at the bottom of the next list, and she'd make burgers.

* * *

"Gingka?"

"Yeah?" His voice was muffled; he was in his room.

"Where's the shopping list?"

There was a clatter and his head appeared over the bannisters. "Oh, I might have left it in the basement. Er... I was borrowing one of your pens to write on it and I must have forgotten to put it back."

She rolled her eyes at him. "You're hopeless."

He grinned back, though it seemed a bit strained – maybe he had a lot of homework to do. "Sorry!"

And with that he disappeared.

Madoka shook her head and traipsed down the steps to the basement. Trust Gingka to take the list to the pen rather than the pen to the list.

But it wasn't the list that caught her attention when she got into the workroom.

There was a box in the middle of the room. It wasn't especially remarkable – medium-sized, cardboard, top sealed shut with parcel tape. Most of her parts deliveries came in similar, if smaller, boxes.

It was remarkable in just one aspect. She recognised it. It was the same box she had bought for Gingka all that time before - and it was no longer empty.

On the very top was a piece of paper, but it wasn't the shopping list. It was a letter.

_Dear Madoka,_

_This is a bit unconventional, I know, but I thought you might like it anyway. _

_First of all I have to say something that I've never quite had the words to say out loud, not all in one go anyway. You're the most generous person I've ever met. You repair our beys for free, even though the parts cost you money. You make us the most amazing cake on our birthdays and take care of us when we're sick. You let us treat your house as ours, and you actually let me live in it. You make the best burgers in the whole world. _

_I can't begin to tell you how much I owe you. We'd never have made it without you, and I think we all kept forgetting to tell you that. I bet I'd still be wandering around looking for Ryuga if you hadn't been there. Actually, strike that – I wouldn't, because Ryuga and Doji would have taken over the world._

_So there you go! You've saved the world, Madoka!_

_I wanted to get you something to show you how highly I think of you, but I've known you for a long time now and if there's one thing that you don't like, it's being given unexpected gifts, because you always feel like you should give something back to repay the giver, and that stresses you out. _

_But even though this is unexpected, I promise it's something you don't have to repay, because you've already done that a hundred times over._

_So if you open the box, you'll see:_

_- Three red screwdrivers, because red is your favourite colour and you once said you could never have enough screwdrivers._

_- A green blanket, because you spend so many nights down in the basement. I know how cold it is in there even with the heating on. _

_- An overhead LED display, because I don't want you to wreck your eyes in those long nights, and I don't trust those energy-saving bulbs._

_- A pair of fingerless gloves for working in winter, reinforced with leather because I am determined to teach you how to call your blade back to your hand without covering your palms with scars._

_- An eyelet punch, which I'd never actually heard of but I knew you needed one because you were complaining that you didn't have one that night you thought I was asleep on the sofa._

_- A very sharp knife, because I'm selfish and I love your cooking, and I saw your face when you realised how blunt the old one was._

_- Suet, venison sausages, cardamom, dragon fruit, mulberry juice, star anise, one hundred percent cocoa chocolate and elderberry cordial, because like I said, I love your cooking, and I know how happy it makes you when you get to make all that weird stuff that actually tastes really good even if it's made from stuff I've never heard of._

_- And a pale blue powder-puff, because you actually put up with this daft game for this long, and because you are you._

_You have already given me so many gifts that this is nowhere near repayment for your generosity. However, I know you, and so I know you will try to give me something that will, in your words, 'make up' for all of this._

_There is actually one thing I'd like, but I don't want you to get it for me just because you feel like you should. You're a wise girl, and I trust you more than I trust almost anyone else (you come second to Pegasus, I'm afraid, but I guess that's cheating), so I hope you'll come to the best decision about whether to get it for me for your own sake, not mine. _

_If you decide it's worth the cost, I'll be in my room when you get back from the shops. If it's not, and I've made a colossal fool of myself, then just leave the apples outside my door. _

_Gingka_

She lowered the letter with shaking hands. She'd known that Gingka considered her to be one of his best friends, and they'd been through thick and thin together, but she'd never realised just how carefully he'd watched her. How well he'd _understood_ her. She had thought only Tsubasa had those kind of observational skills.

She turned the paper over, somehow knowing before she even saw it that the shopping list would be on the back of it.

_Ice-cream_

_Apples_

_Burgers_

_Rolls_

_Butter_

_Raisins_

_Orange juice_

_A kiss_

Her heart almost stopped.

This wasn't how it was meant to go. There was meant to be an awkward confession in a deserted classroom, and maybe a bunch of flowers. There would be the music of swelling strings in the background. He would be wearing a smart suit, and looking only slightly nervous.

It was meant to be perfect.

Of course she couldn't go up to him. He was her friend, right? She didn't want to risk his friendship for something that might not last. Anyway, she could read him like a book, Tsubasa had said, so why hadn't she seen the signs that he might have been... have been harbouring a _crush_ on her? He'd never started blushing or stammering around her, he'd never tried to be close to her...

Her mind screeched to a halt. But he _had._ She'd seen it so many times, and she'd assumed that she knew him well enough to read what he actually meant by the various gestures as friendship alone. Maybe she hadn't known him so well after all.

Or... or maybe it was _her_ that she had been unable to read. Maybe she hadn't _wanted_ to read the signs before now, and so she'd deliberately and subconsciously mistranslated them.

Moving on autopilot, she tugged the tape off of the box and opened it. There, right on the top, sat the powder-puff, nestled on the blanket that she'd spent an hour and a half searching for because only exactly the right colour would do.

Silently, she tucked it in her pocket and went back up the stairs. She barely even registered where she was going until she found herself standing in front of her wardrobe. She reached up on top of it and pulled down the first gift he'd given her. It wasn't even dusty, because despite her having absolutely no use for a powder-puff, she still liked to take it down and look at it once in a while, because it made her smile.

Could she risk it?

Would it be worth the cost?

* * *

He was seated on his bed when she turned the corner at the top of the stairs, but he wasn't looking in her direction. She hesitated. She could still change her mind if she wanted. They were both so young, and they really didn't know the first thing about love. This could be a disaster.

Or it could be everything.

"Gingka?"

The speed at which he spun around and stood up would have surprised her if she hadn't known him so well. He had been listening for her, but something had dragged him into his own mind so that he hadn't actually heard her approach. She wondered for a second what it might have been, and then decided it didn't matter. He was looking at her, and the expression on his face was frozen between hope and terror.

She had faced the physical manifestation of darkness and evil without retreating a step. There was no way she was backing down from this.

Taking a deep breath, she strode across the room and kissed her best friend on the mouth.

Well, sort of. Their noses got in the way, and she wasn't quite sure how to work the angle. But it _was_ a kiss. That she was pretty certain of, even if it was nothing like the books and movies said.

She pulled back after a couple of seconds, because it was actually kind of awkward, this kissing business. His eyes were very wide, the pupils distended in shock.

"You..." he began, and then stopped and swallowed. "Um... was that a yes?"

She nodded, unable to speak for a second. But he didn't seem to care; his whole face lit up with the most glorious smile and he stepped forwards to gather her up into the biggest hug she had been given since her dad had met her at the airport after getting back from battling Nemesis. Her feet actually left the ground for a second.

And yes, _this_ was right, this was perfect, just staying here with his arms wrapped around her shoulders and hers around his waist because she was just that little bit smaller than him. She put her head on his shoulder, warm and comfortable and...

Oh. She _did_ love him.

Why did that come as such a surprise?

"How long?" she asked, breathless, and he half-laughed, knowing just what she meant, and pulled away from her until he could look at her properly.

"I've no idea," he admitted. "But I think I knew on the day that you got me the shower-cap and didn't even bat an eyelid." He swallowed. "You?"

She lowered her eyes, because she couldn't meet his. "Since the day that I realised that I never have and never will use a powder-puff, but I kept yours on top of my wardrobe where I could see it, just because you gave it to me."

"Can I give you one more thing?" he said. "It's not much, but I'd like to give you my heart."

And then suddenly the tension broke and they were both laughing because that sounded _ridiculous_ coming from Gingka, _her_ Gingka who was as straightforward as the Stardust Driver and about as romantic as a...

Well, as a shopping list.

Madoka squeezed her eyes shut. "Just tell me one thing," she said, and she wasn't sure if she was trying not to cry or laugh even more. "Who actually came up with that ridiculous line?"

He didn't even look surprised. "Yeah, I guess that didn't really sound like me, did it? That was Chao Xin. I asked him for help when he came round at the weekend." His eyes suddenly went wide. "But I wrote the letter! That's all me!"

"I can tell," she said, and perhaps she was coming down on the side of crying, but from happiness because this wasn't the exquisite first date she'd imagined, and the kiss had been nothing like the stories said, but it was fine – it was better than fine, it was _perfect_ because the boy standing awkwardly a step away from her really was the only thing she wanted. "Your handwriting was much better than usual, so there must have been loads of draft copies, you following me?"

"Always," he grinned, then tilted his head to the left. "And yes, there were draft copies. About seventeen, I think. And then it took me forever to find the last screwdriver. Turned out it'd fallen into my sock drawer."

"What was it doing there?"

Blood rushed up his face and he dropped his eyes. "I put them all up there so I could see them when I was doing homework. I must have knocked one of them into the drawer this morning." He bit his lip. "It probably sounds ridiculous, but I wasn't intending to give them to you at first. I just wanted to keep them... because... well, because you got them for me."

Madoka blinked, and then reached out to lift his chin so that he was looking at her. When he finally met her eyes, she reached into her jacket and pulled out first the new powder-puff, and then the older one. Gingka stared at them for ten long, silent seconds before his eyes went wide. "You too?" he whispered.

She tried valiantly not to laugh. "This is going to be the weirdest 'how we got together' story ever," she said. Then all of a sudden, she thought of something. "Wait, you got me to buy my own gifts?"

He gave her the strangest, sweetest lop-sided smile she had ever seen. "It was the only way I knew you'd accept them," he said, and kissed her on the nose.


	2. Long Distance

_Despite these characters turning up in the previous chapter, each of these chapters are separate one-shots unless otherwise stated. Otherwise things will get very confusing VERY quickly._

_This one-shot is set four or five years post-Nemesis._

* * *

**Day 2**

**Long Distance**

**(established Hikaru/Tsubasa)**

Their jobs kept them apart for weeks at a time. He all but lived at the office, getting calls from around the world at odd hours of the night. She travelled around the country, running training classes and helping to support small blading gyms as they started up. It was little enough to pay back her debt to the ones who had persuaded her to pick up Storm Aquario once more.

They tried to call each other in the evenings, but reception was bad in most of the smaller villages she ended up in, and a video-call from the far side of the world would regularly break into their conversation (Masamune, now co-director of the American branch of the WBBA, had never quite got the hang of time-differences).

So everyone was a little surprised when, during the three days when the WBBA was shut down over Christmas, Hikaru didn't come home.

"Maybe there was snow?" Hyoma suggested, looking around at the other three who had gathered in the small coffee shop just down the road from the WBBA building. "Transport's really bad in the winter months up in the mountains. When I lived in Koma we used to have to stockpile all kinds of stuff because we could never get down to the markets. I had to go once for some emergency medication and it took me almost the whole day just to get down – and I got hypothermia. For three days, it wouldn't be worth it."

Madoka frowned into her cup of hot chocolate. "And where's Tsubasa, anyway? I couldn't get hold of him. He shouldn't be alone at Christmas, that's just miserable."

"He'll probably be with Yuu," Benkei pointed out. "Yuu always invites him and Tithi over for Christmas dinner."

"Considering how hyper Yuu and Tithi can get when they're together, I'd think he'd try to avoid them," Hyoma muttered.

"Oh come on," Ryuto laughed, leaning back in his chair and draining his coffee cup. "Be nice. Tithi's a good kid. He's a decent treasure-hunter too – found all sorts of stuff on the last expedition we went on."

"I have the greatest of respect for both Yuu and Tithi," Hyoma told him. "Just... not together."

"It's sad, though," Madoka sighed. "Christmas is a time for family, and neither of them have much in the way of that, except each other."

Only Benkei saw the way that Ryuto glanced down, unable – or unwilling - to meet their eyes for a second.

"Tsubasa's got Eagle," Hyoma pointed out. "He won't be completely alone even if he's in his house."

"I guess," Ryuto said, putting his cup on the table with a decided _thump_. "Tell you what, I'll get hold of Tithi and ask him if Yuu's invited Tsubasa over this year."

Madoka's shoulders relaxed instantly. "That would be great, Ryuto. Thank you. I just... I get worried about him sometimes. He works so hard and he gets hardly any time off."

Hyoma smiled at her over the top of his cup. "He'll be alright, Madoka. With you to look out for him in the office and Hikaru to snap at him when he overworks himself, he's well looked after."

Madoka stifled a laugh. "She does snap, doesn't she?"

"That's why he loves her," Ryuto said wisely. "She's the only woman in the world with the guts to tell the Director of one of the world's biggest companies when he's being an idiot. Even Madoka can't do that – no offence, Madoka."

"None taken." Madoka took a sip of her drink.

Benkei folded his arms. "Well, I just hope that they'll be happy and warm – and with lots of food, wherever they are!"

.

Unfortunately for Benkei (well, technically for Tsubasa, though he didn't consider it so), the bearer of the Bull constellation wasn't going to get his wish that Christmas.

In fact, Tsubasa _had_ spent Christmas alone, walking through the frozen forests beyond the outskirts of the city with only Eagle for company. The huge bird was almost twelve years old now, and a magnificent hunter. It was one of Tsubasa's greatest pleasures to watch his friend doing what he did best, out in the wilds where he had come from.

He had no intention of going back to his cold, empty house that night, and even less intention of making an appearance at the undoubtedly extraordinarily loud dinner that Yuu would have thrown. Tsubasa's job meant that he got precious little time to himself, and so he was determined to enjoy this as much as he could.

Eagle's skill landed him only two fish by the time it became too dark for hunting, but a rabbit caught in the forest earlier that day and the provisions in Tsubasa's bag made for a very nice dinner for the two of them, even if it was nothing on the banquets going on around the rest of the world.

Tsubasa had just finished washing the pots out and was wrapping himself up in his sleeping bag and blankets when a tinny noise from his bag startled him. He fished his phone out of the side pocket, slightly surprised that he had signal all the way out here.

"Hello, beautiful," said the voice on the other end, and he found himself smiling almost before the first word was out of her mouth.

"Hello, Hikaru-love. So you managed to find signal too?" He poked at the fire, bringing the embers leaping back into life.

"Yes. I'm staying in Koma for the next few days whilst the snow clears, so I'm out by the Green Hades stadium – remember when Hyoma brought us here?"

"I can remember. You're warm enough?"

She laughed, and he relaxed a little. "Yes, Tsubasa. What about you? Not too much work, I hope?"

"Not too much," he agreed. "Masamune's pushing for a special American tournament because they're the biggest importers of beyblades in the world, but I think he just wants to battle in it himself."

The sound she made was halfway between a snort and a giggle, and it made him smile. "That sounds like Masamune," she said. "Don't shoot him down too harshly, okay?"

"I promise."

"Hold on – he's the director in America, why can't he just organise a tournament himself? Is he just being lazy and making you do all the hard work? Because if he is then I refuse to let you take it on – you'll just exhaust yourself and..."

"Hikaru."

She stopped. "Sorry," she said after a second. "I'm just worried about you with all that work to do. I wish I could be there to help out, but..."

"But it's more important that you help the smaller gyms set up and get their feet on the ground," he interrupted smoothly. "I know. We talked about this, remember?"

"I remember," she said softly. "And I still think that it's important. Everyone deserves the chance to learn how to blade if that's what they want to do. But it doesn't mean that I like it. I miss you."

"I miss you too. Happy Christmas, by the way."

"And to you." But she sounded subdued. "Did you go over to Yuu's house for dinner?"

He shook his head, forgetting that he was on the phone. "No. Tithi decided it would be a brilliant idea to invite Aguma and Bao, though. I doubt there's going to be much left of the house tomorrow."

She laughed. "Oh, I can imagine that. Well done getting clear of it. I pity whoever has to clear up."

"Not me," he said firmly, holding out one arm to give Eagle a perch to land on as he swept down from the night sky. "I'll go over tomorrow afternoon to give Yuu his present, though."

"You're out by your river, aren't you?"

Now it was his turn to laugh. She knew him very well. "Yes. Eagle's been trying to work out where all the fish are hiding, and I don't have the heart to tell him that they've all hidden themselves under rocks for winter." The bird gave him a very stern look before hopping up onto his shoulder and starting to preen his murderous beak through his master's hair.

"I've got a present for you. Look up."

He tilted his head back. "Oh..." he breathed, automatically pulling the edge of the blanket closer around him.

Stars exploded across the heavens, a firmament of light to outshine all the Christmas trees in the world. In the clear, cold night, they were more brilliant than anything he had ever seen.

"They're the same stars I can see," she said, and it was as if her voice was no longer just in one ear, but carried on the wind. "So, really, I'm right next to you."

"We're always next to each other," he said, echoing the words she had said to him so long ago on their seventh date, when they had been seated on top of the WBBA building, wrapped in the same blanket and watching the sky above their city. "Aquila and Aquarius stand separated in the sky, but they twist to look for each other, no matter which of them is above the horizon and which below. As long as the stars shine, we cannot be parted."

"See," she whispered. "I told you I'd be with you for Christmas."

He took in a deep breath and just _stared._ He definitely didn't get out of the office enough. He'd almost forgotten this beauty could even exist, this extraordinary display that made up the very core of the sport that he governed. "Hikaru," he murmured. "I know that all the poems compare a lover's eyes to stars, but... but I can't. They're just... just so... so far away. They're bright, and they're beautiful, but they're cold as well."

He heard her hum on the other end of the phone. "I don't think your eyes are like stars either," she said. "I think... I think your eyes are like your eyes. They're warm and funny and clever, and I can look at them whether it's day or night."

He glanced up at Eagle, who had taken off to perch on a branch above his head for the night. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Separated by hundreds of miles, they fell asleep together, the sound of their love's soft breathing in their ears and the stars of their constellations blazing just below the horizon.


	3. Glass Princess

**Day 3**

**Glass Princess**

**(Sophie/Bao)**

"You're _staaaaaa_ring," Wales sang in her ear, and Sophie jumped.

"Wales!" she hissed. "Stop that!"

"It's true," he laughed, backing off before she could poke him. "The only time you haven't been sneaking glances at him is when the Director started his speech."

"You're a - " She didn't get the chance to complete the sentence, because Klaus suddenly leant into the conversation.

"I don't know how these Eastern boys show that they like someone, but he's been looking this way for a very long time," he said. "So unless he's analysing the construction of the display in the middle of our table, he's interested."

She looked very pointedly at the centrepiece of the table – a beautiful creation of twisting ribbons made of different-coloured glass that met and blossomed out into a shallow bowl full of water, floating candles lighting its surface. "Well, now _I'm_ analysing its structure." Wales hid a snigger and she only restrained herself from punching him with the greatest of effort. "Seriously, you two. You don't need to try to pair me up with every boy I look at. I don't need the two of you trying to find me a boyfriend."

"Do you want one?" Wales asked, gesturing casually around the large hall at the huge group of bladers from all over the world who had gathered by invitation only for the celebratory one-year-since-Nemesis-was-defeated dinner (it was actually called that on the invitation. Sophie had just shaken her head and wondered how the Director had sneaked that one past Hikaru). "There's quite a lot of choice, after all."

"That's not the point. Why can't you follow Julian's example and treat me as if I'm just another boy?"

"Because you're not a boy, and Julian doesn't treat you like one," Klaus informed her. "He treats you as an excellent blader and a friend, just as we do."

She rolled her eyes at him and looked away again, conveniently sneaking a glance sideways at the boy she had been surreptitiously watching all evening. "Your attempts at playing matchmaker are as useless as they are transparent, Klaus. Stop it."

.

"Bao!" Aguma's voice was loud even at a whisper, and the red-haired boy nearly fell off his chair.

"What?"

"She's a member of Team Excalibur, her name is Sophie, she's the daughter of a famous fashion designer, her bey is a White Cetus WD145 and you have been staring at her for the past ten minutes without blinking."

He didn't bother arguing. Aguma knew him better than anyone else, and there had been times when Bao hadn't realised he was thinking something until Aguma had asked him about it. Of course, it worked in reverse as well, but that wasn't the issue right now. "And the rules of Beylin Fist clearly state that relationships can only begin once a warrior is removed from active duty."

Aguma actually rolled his eyes. "I think you're forgetting that you were made the leader of Beylin Fist two months ago and therefore you can make whatever rules you like. It's not as if there's very many of us left now, and we don't exactly have a reason for trying to dominate the world any more so active duty is more of a... tradition than a requirement."

Bao laughed. "If that's what you want, we'll have it your way."

At that, Aguma grinned at him. "So, you _were_ interested."

"That means nothing. She is guarded by Wales, Klaus and Konzern – I have heard many rumours about what they did to one of her suitors and have no intention of the same thing happening to me."

"Hmm," Aguma said, pretending to look concerned. "I would have thought you would be more worried that she was out of your league."

Bao gave him a confused look. "Aguma, I don't think I _have_ a league. And what's that got to do with anything?"

Aguma sighed and gave up. Bao clearly didn't have a romantic bone in his body.

.

At the end of the dinner, most of the bladers began to drift between tables to greet old friends and renew acquaintances. Wales was talking happily to Jack about a new art gallery opening in Britain that Jack wanted to visit, and Klaus was tuning out because it just wasn't his thing.

He was surprised by a tap on his shoulder. Turning, he saw the taller of the Beylin Fist pair standing behind him, his expression wary.

"You're Klaus," he said. It wasn't really a question.

"Yes. And you're Aguma, right?"

A brief nod. "This is going to be a very strange question, but... your team-mate, Sophie – is she - ?"

"Single, yes, interested in Bao, very probably." Klaus finished for him, suddenly realising just why Aguma had looked so hesitant. "And Bao?"

"Definitely interested," the other man confirmed, relaxing a little. "Either that, or he's decided that she's the reincarnation of Pluto and is trying to stare her into non-existence."

Klaus grinned. He liked this man. "I can assure you, she's nothing like that. So are we going to conveniently leave them at a table on their own and see what happens?"

"Isn't it girls who normally do this?" Aguma asked, confused but apparently resigned to his fate of matchmaker.

"Yes," Klaus admitted, "but it's not as if there's any girls who could actually do this instead, are there?"

Aguma frowned, but he had to agree. "We'll try to push them together then. Either it will explode, or it will fix something. Either way, it'll make this evening more entertaining."

Yep. Klaus had definitely found his new best friend.

.

"Your team-mate has stolen my seat," said a voice from above her head. "I assume it's no problem if I steal his?"

Sophie looked up at the red-headed man she had been sneaking glances at all evening (yes, alright, she admitted it – he was pretty!) and shrugged. "Fair is fair."

Bao dropped into the seat opposite her and pointedly looked the other way. She did the same. After all, they'd never really communicated before, and it would be very awkward if she started the wrong sort of conversation. What kinds of things did he like, anyway? Was he a fighter, an artist (probably not or he'd have stuck around with Jack and Wales, who were getting along like a red-headed house on fire), an athlete – what? She knew nothing about him other than his name, his position in the Beylin Fist hierarchy, the name of his bey, and some titbits of information she had gleaned about his life in the days after Nemesis, when he had been storming around the WBBA headquarters in a fury half-born from worry as Aguma had disappeared off to fight Nemesis without consulting him or even allowing him to come along.

She was entirely unaware of the argument going on at the table Team Excalibur had originally been seated at, where Aguma and Klaus were now sitting and looking _very_ disgruntled.

"This isn't very entertaining at all," Aguma muttered.

"If this was a movie, someone would make him spill his drink all over her," Klaus hissed back. "Then he'd have to apologise and help her clear up and their eyes would meet and there would be fireworks."

Aguma stifled a laugh. "That would never work. Bao would whip round, find out who had made him spill the drink, and go beat them up, actually."

"True..."

"Remind me why we thought this was a good idea, again?"

But Klaus' eyes had suddenly lit up. "I've got an idea," he said slowly, and quickly outlined it to his co-conspirator.

"That's twisted," Aguma spluttered. "Twisted, but... but _brilliant._"

The two matchmakers grinned at each other.

Sophie was just about to get up to go and see Madoka, who was on the far side of the hall, when a hand fell on her shoulder. "Hello, Sophie!" Klaus said, and his expression and voice were suspiciously bright. "You looked very lonely over here, so I thought I'd come and say hello!"

She frowned at him. "Klaus, you've been sitting with me all evening."

"Oh, hello!" Klaus continued, ignoring her completely. "You must be Bao. Just so you know, you have to defeat me, Wales and Konzern before you're allowed to date Sophie."

"_What?_" Sophie spluttered. "Klaus, that's not - "

"And _you_ have to defeat _me_ before you can date the leader of Beylin Fist," said another voice, as Aguma materialised behind his oldest friend's shoulder.

"_Aguma!"_ Bao yelped.

Aguma ignored him, frowning slightly. "But that's a bit unfair, because you're usually a tag-teamer, Sophie. How about you elect a champion? I'll fight him instead." He paused. "Or her."

Now both Sophie and Bao were staring at their friends in unabashed horror. "Aguma, _what is this about?_" Bao snarled, voice controlled and dangerous.

"I'd be more than happy to take on your challenge," Klaus interrupted, eyes fixed on Aguma. "You'll never defeat my Capricorn."

Aguma snorted. "Clearly you've never faced my Kronos. I'll wipe the floor with you."

"We'll go and get started then," Klaus said. "If you beat me, Bao can date Sophie. If I beat you, Sophie can date Bao, right?"

"That sounds about right. Let's go."

Sophie and Bao exchanged baffled looks. Klaus glanced down at Bao.

"Oh, and Bao? You're welcome to come and check out our table anytime! Bye!"

And both of them disappeared off into the crowd, grinning.

A stunned silence settled over the two who remained in their seats, utterly confused. "I am so sorry about that," Bao muttered. "I have no idea what got into him. Maybe he just wanted to fight Klaus."

"Probably." Sophie offered him a commiserating grin. "Hopefully they won't blow up too much stuff battling. Klaus can be quite enthusiastic at times."

Bao nodded, relaxing a little. Then he asked "What did Klaus mean, 'you're welcome to come and check out our table anytime'?"

Sophie covered her face with one hand. Trust Klaus to be the joker tonight of all nights. "He was suggesting earlier that you might have been looking over at our table so often because you wanted to know how the centrepiece was put together," she said. "Just ignore him."

But Bao suddenly wouldn't meet her eyes. "Actually..."

She stared at him. "Wait, seriously? The centrepiece?"

His shoulders slumped in apparent defeat, or maybe embarrassment. "Sort of. It's made of blown glass, right?"

"Yes... why?"

"I know most people think that Beylin Fist don't have a permanent base, but we have one for winter."

"I thought your people were all for showing how tough they were?" she asked, puzzled.

He smiled. "There's tough, and then there's idiotic. Our elders realised that, past a certain age, there are storms that not even the toughest can weather. It was better to retreat to the mountains for the winter, because otherwise the most experienced bladers tended to die before handing over their knowledge."

She thought back to her blading tutor. He'd been a strong man, that was for certain, but a fierce mountain storm wouldn't have had any problem chewing him up and spitting him back out as an icicle. Maybe the Beylin Fist weren't as insane as she'd first believed. "So what has this got to do with the glass centrepiece?"

"We couldn't practice all the time, because it would burn us out. So the elders had us choose some kind of craft to make or at least keep our fingers occupied so that we didn't run riot inside the fortress and - "

"The _fortress?_"

"That's what we called it. It was built into the side of a cliff, and it was pretty impregnable. Anyway, the best crafts would get sold at the markets we passed through, to get us money for food. Aguma learnt metalwork. I learnt glass-blowing."

Her eyes lit up. "Oh, and of course the furnaces could be used to provide heat for the rest of the group, right?"

He nodded. "You're getting the hang of this. So that's how I learnt to blow glass. I mostly make animals." He glanced at her, almost sheepishly. "Actually, mostly whales and dolphins."

She couldn't hide the smile. "I'd love to see them. Is there a reason why you make those?"

The chatter in the hall suddenly vanished into one of those strange, simultaneous silences that occasionally happen in large groups. Bao stood there with his mouth open, clearly about to say something and not wanting the rest of the room to hear it.

"And that's when Yo-yo fell off the boat!" came Yuu's clear voice, carrying through the stillness, and almost everyone laughed (except Kyouya, but that was to be expected). Normal noise levels quickly resumed, slightly amplified after the silence.

"You were saying?" Sophie prompted. Bao shifted awkwardly.

"It's not really a _good_ reason," he muttered.

She shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I'm interested."

He met her eyes and his gaze sharpened, though she thought it was with humour rather than suspicion. "It has nothing to do with you, if that's what you wanted to know. I'm... I'm not very good at textures. I've managed fur once or twice, and scales if it's a big enough object, but I've never managed to get clothing to work. I try to get the glass to drape like cloth and it just looks like they're wearing sacks. Doesn't help that the only models I ever had _were_ pretty much wearing sacks, with cloaks on top, because it was the middle of winter even if we were down by the fires."

The first flicker of an idea appeared at the back of her mind. "You know my mother's a fashion designer?" Sophie asked slowly.

"I was aware of the fact."

"She might have some old sketch books with designs in from all angles that you could use for reference. I could ask her if you could borrow them."

Instantly something at the back of his eyes closed. "I don't need charity. Especially not from some rich little European princess like you."

"I wasn't offering you charity," she snapped, instantly on the defensive. "You're a fellow blader, talented in an area I have always loved, and that is all. If you don't take the notebooks, they'll probably be burned in the next spring cleaning."

"Fine." His shoulders relaxed slightly, but he still seemed rather on edge. "I'm sorry, alright? I'm not used to people offering things without wanting something in return."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "And what makes you think that I'm going to do this for you for nothing?"

His eyes suddenly cleared, and he actually looked interested. "A businesswoman, I see. Well, maybe we can work out a deal of some sort..."

He wasn't her type. He certainly wasn't her class. But in that second, Sophie saw in him a kindred spirit, someone else who wore the expectations on his shoulders as easily as clothing. Someone else who knew who they were, what they wanted, and how far they were willing to go to get it.

"I've always wanted to try designing something with glass panels or buttons," she said as carelessly as she could manage. "But I've never found someone skilled enough to make them."

The moment that the words were out of her mouth, she knew that Bao had read her exactly the same way she had just read him. The smile tilted up just one corner of his mouth, enough to be endearing without being condescending. "Your place or mine?"

"Doesn't that depend on whether Aguma or Klaus wins?"

He laughed for the first time, and it was surprisingly soft. "Aguma's won. Trust me."

She knew how strong the friendship was between Aguma and Bao, so much that they could almost read each others' minds. But that wasn't why she believed him. Because, strangely enough, she _did _trust him_._ And that wasn't something she'd known before.

.

Three years later, the centrepiece of the wedding feast was a blown-glass couple, the man clothed in a set of intricate ceremonial robes and the woman wearing an exact replica of the bride's dress, right down to the tiny glass pearls that were scattered across the skirts. The lace train from the dress swirled around the two figures like frozen, glassy flame.

And sketched into the glass-lace were eight words.

_For Sophie, my inspiration and my glass princess._

* * *

_There is a related piece of music for this - link at top of profile.  
_


	4. Of Roses

_Apparently Fanfic knows Lera as Dora...  
_

* * *

**Day 4**

**Of Roses**

**(established Lera/Aleksei)**

Lera rubbed at her head. The calibrations should have been fine. Everything had been calculated down to the last microsecond. But apparently they hadn't factored in how downright _clumsy_ tools could be in zero gravity.

And now they would be late home.

She was on her own in the control room (well, not _alone_ alone – the rest of the scientists and astronauts at ground control were there), interacting with the three astronauts who were up in the space station high above, fixing a panel on the side of the craft. Aleksei and Nowaguma were sailing around several thousand miles above her head, and here she was stuck on earth.

It wasn't the first time that one of them had been left behind because the shuttles could only take three people. After all, Aleksei had grown up to become one of the foremost astrophysicists and astronomers in the world, and Nowaguma knew more about putting a space ship together (and taking it apart) than most people knew about basic biology. They were perfect for a repair mission, along with the senior astronaut Sergei who was the mission leader. Her own mathematical expertise, which far outstripped anyone else's in the centre, was more useful on the ground, helping to guide the return craft back. Had it been a calibration issue, she would have been up there instead of Nowaguma.

But instead it was a panel that had been damaged in a minor collision with some space junk, and so she had taken her seat at her computer and quietly tracked the spaceship as it carried the man she had loved for most of her life into the total vacuum of space.

A sudden _bleep_ alerted her to a message coming in from the space station. Hoping it wasn't an alarm, she opened it.

To her surprise, it was a private message, sent from the main computer straight to her station. It had to be from Aleksei - he was the only one who had worked out how to do that.

_._

_My dear Lera,_

_I am afraid that I won't be able to make it home in time for Valentine's Day like I said. Problems with the station have taken longer to repair than we expected – but you will know that already. _

_Nowaguma's strength is being put to good use. We fixed the last panel today, and you should get the video report very soon. _

_It is very quiet without you. I do wish you were here instead of Nowaguma sometimes, but that would never work. You never liked spacewalking._

_So, as I can't make it for the day itself, I thought I would send you a gift. I cannot give you diamonds (I might be an astronaut, but I don't make THAT much money). So instead, I'm going to give you something better. I will give you the stars. Please accept this as a suitable gift – it is the only flower that is good enough for someone like you._

_Right ascension: 2 hours, 21 minutes, 28.703 seconds_

_Declination: +39 degrees, 22 feet, 32.65 inches_

_Yours, until the stars burn out,_

_Aleksei_

.

She took a deep breath. Whilst Aleksei wasn't fond of Valentine's Day as a concept (and neither was she, frankly), he was very much a romantic, and loved traditions. Since they had officially got together six years before, this would be the first Valentine's that he had missed.

She did miss him. It was daft, she knew, because of all the people in ground control she was the one who knew every second of every hour exactly where both the station and Aleksei himself were. It was just a little difficult to get to him.

"Ivan!" she called across to one of the technicians. "I'm going up to the observatory. Aleksei wants me to take a look at something." The older man nodded and took her seat as she stood, stretching the kinks out of her spine.

The telescope was already set up in the observatory. With hands only held steady by years of training, she typed in the co-ordinates. Not that she needed them – some long-lost memory was telling her that she knew what this 'gift' was.

The telescope focused on an area between Perseus and Andromeda, a faint patch of sky that had nothing remarkable in it that she could see. But then the telescope focused and zoomed in, further and further until she was staring into the depths of outer space.

The astronomer part of her brain quietly informed her that what she was seeing was the interaction of a pair of galaxies over three hundred million light years beyond the Milky Way. One of them - the smaller - was actively producing star matter, the other wasn't.

She clapped her hands over her mouth to muffle the cry. She had been right. She'd known the second that he'd told her that it was the only flower in the stars.

He had given her Arp 273.

He had given her the Rose Galaxies.

She had loved him for so long that sometimes she forgot just how much. But every now and then he did something, something like this that sliced her to the core. Of course she had known about Arp 273 – she'd studied the galaxies as part of her application to work at the space centre as their primary astronomic mathematician. But to have it _given_ to her, even just the co-ordinates, took her breath away and reminded her of just what her boy meant to her. He was the frosty, cloudless night when she saw nothing but her footsteps and so many stars. He was the centre of her galaxy, and she was drawn irresistibly inwards towards whatever awaited her. She knew she could trust him with her life, as he trusted her with his. They had shared so much that sometimes she wasn't certain who she would be without him.

She drifted back down the steps of the observatory and took her place back from Ivan. For several long minutes she just sat there, staring at the numbers and unconsciously doing the sums to make sure both her boys were safe. Finally, she blinked and straightened up, opening the message from Aleksei again. The onboard computers would pick up a reply in the same way as they received instructions for the use of the more complex tools, just in case.

.

_Dear Aleksei,_

_I know we haven't really talked about this, but: _

_Right ascension: 15 hours, 17 minutes,14.4 seconds_

_Declination: +21 degrees, 35 feet, 8 inches_

_?_

_All my love,_

_Lera_

.

She wasn't brave enough to add anything else. She sent it before she could lose her nerve.

The response came back within seconds. Of course he would have known what it was. He was the one who had memorised whole sections of the sky in order to plot them by hand in the terrible week that their computers broke down. He knew what she had sent him. More importantly, he knew what she was asking.

She opened the message. It was a single word.

.

_Yes._

_._

She smiled. Sometimes, only a ring galaxy would do to propose to an astronomer.

* * *

_The images for the star systems mentioned here are linked in my profile. For those who missed it, the link for yesterday's piece of music is now up as well.  
_


	5. The Worst First Date In The World

_For those of you who know about the current weather situation in Britain; yes, I am in an area in reasonable danger from gale-force winds (nothing on the American hurricanes, but still – it's scary when you can't walk along the road without being blown backwards). I'm not in the flooding areas now, but extremely heavy rain and gales do make travelling dangerous, and there have been local floods. So far I've been lucky enough to avoid the power cuts that have been plaguing my city, but if I should end up in the middle of one, as the storm warnings are staying until after the weekend, I will update this as and when I can. _

_To any of my British readers who ARE in the middle of the floods, winds, storms, and general chaos that is tearing our country apart, I wish you safety and health – and don't do anything silly! Flood safety, people!_

* * *

**Day 5**

**The Worst First Date In The World**

**(Mei-Mei/Chao Xin)**

"That was..."

"Don't."

"I'm..."

"I said _don't._"

Chao Xin dropped his head and stared at his knees. She hadn't sounded angry. Just tired. He had no idea how he had thought this would be a good idea.

It was about two hours since he and Mei-Mei had arrived back at Beylin Temple, and still neither of them could face actually entering the main gate. So they were perched just below the walls, seated on a tiny outcrop just down the cliff that would keep them out of the keen sight of Da Shan, who had been just a little too concerned with the fact that two of his team-mates were dating. Well, sort of dating. Not actually dating. As in, hadn't-even-been-on-a-proper-first-date-yet not dating.

She smiled thinly, the expression forced. "I don't mind them, honestly."

"Yes you do. You don't like how noisy they are and you hate how clingy they are."

She looked shocked. Apparently she hadn't realised that he really _did_ pay attention when the girl he liked started looking unhappy. He would have to work harder at getting her to believe that.

"Maybe we shouldn't do this." She sounded so sad. "If that's what's going to happen every time..."

"No! I..." A little quieter. "I want to make this work. Even if it means staying completely out of the public eye, if it means we can only be together all the way up here, I want this to work."

"You're more important to me than they are."

"I know. And you're more important to me than they are too." It hadn't been her fault. It hadn't really been his either, not that he was prepared to think that. He certainly hadn't _wanted_ it to happen. "I'm sorry about the fans, Mei-Mei. I know you don't like the when they get like that."

"There was nothing you could do about them. I know that. I've always known." She shrugged. "You're Chao Xin, it comes with the territory."

"Still. I'll try to persuade them not to throw their shoes at you next time. That wasn't acceptable." He frowned. "You'd think that _my_ fans would have better manners than that."

"Where should we go next time?" she asked after a long moment, unconsciously leaning into him. "I'd like to get ice-cream one day. Yuu from Gan Gan Galaxy says it's really nice."

"So… so you really want to try going down into the town again?" Part of him hadn't expected that. Mei-Mei was beautiful and confident and one of the most amazing girls he'd ever met (and he'd met quite a lot), but he knew she didn't like the amount of attention he got from his fans whenever he went walking. He hardly paid attention to it any more – it was normal for him. But she always pulled back when the squeals became audible, and once or twice had vanished without a trace.

He wouldn't have blamed her if she had wanted to break it – this, whatever it was - off altogether. It was all very well him saying that he was taken, thank-you-very-much, and that would some of his more enthusiastic fans please back off a bit... but that wouldn't stop them. He'd learned that the hard way only two hours before.

"Of course I do," she said, looking up at him, shocked. "I'm a member of Team Wang Hu Zhong; I don't give up on the things I want." She tossed her head proudly. "Just because we fell off the first time we tried to do that human tower in training didn't mean that we didn't keep trying. We just have to keep practising. A lot." A rather fierce grin lit her eyes. "Starting tomorrow."

"I love you so much," he smiled, and realised only a second later that he had said it aloud as her eyes went wide. He swallowed, then mentally punched himself. She might as well know now. "Of course I love you. I've loved you for years."

"Thank you," she whispered, and put her head on his shoulder. "I..."

He waited, but she was silent. After a long moment, she shook her head. He understood. She wasn't quite ready to say it yet (well, he'd been rather fast, but he was telling the truth. He'd loved her ever since he'd first battled her). But it was fine. He could wait for her. He _would_ wait for her, forever if he had to.

"So what was the worst bit?" he asked, keeping his voice light and teasing as he changed the subject. "_I_ think it was when I didn't have enough money on me to pay the bill because that restaurant owner got our orders mixed up with that super-rich guy in the corner."

"He was definitely a bubble-wheeling piece of slime."

He startled for a second, then laughed. "Mei-Mei, I think you mean double-dealing."

"Oh. Yes." Something twitched at the corner of her mouth. "I think it was when we had to help that man to the hospital because he was hit by a car right as we were about to cross that road." She frowned. "Not that it was bad that we helped him. It was bad that no-one else did."

He leaned back against the rock wall at his back and stared into the distance. "Not the part where the police cordoned off the riverside seating area to look for a drugs stash and we both got searched? Or when that guy watering his plants up on the balcony dropped his watering can on my head? Or when..."

"No," she said. "No, it was when I saw how sad you looked when I said we should come back home. That was the worst bit."

He blinked. "Really? Why?"

Her purple eyes met his steadily. "Because I wanted you to be happy on our first date, and because everything went wrong, it was ruined."

"You... _you_ wanted _me_ to be happy?" He tried to laugh, but it came out wrong. "I thought I was taking you to all your favourite places to make _you_ happy. I like seeing you smile."

She smiled, gloriously bright and full of so much _Mei-Mei_ that he couldn't help smiling back. "I'm happy when you're happy."

"Good," he said, not really knowing what words were coming out of his mouth but knowing they were undeniably _right_. "Because I'm happy when _you're_ happy."

"Maybe we should just have beyblading dates from now on," she suggested. "At least we both enjoy that."

He shook his head. "Maybe. Seems a bit too much like training, though. Perhaps we could explore the mountains. Definitely no fans in the mountains."

"No. That's true."

"And I'm a pretty good cook. You can catch some fish. We'll make a night of it. I'm sure Da Shan would let us out overnight if we asked."

She laughed, and moved a bit closer to him. He smiled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders Maybe this evening wasn't completely ruined.

.

Two hours later, a long-suffering Da Shan decided that his team-mates had been sitting outside for long enough, and solemnly informed the pair that if they didn't want to have all their town visiting privileges revoked, they had to get inside _right now._

He never understood why they both started laughing as they walked past him, holding hands.


	6. Type

**Day 6**

**Type**

**(Selen/Aguma)**

She was so proud of herself the first time that she infiltrated the Beylin Fist's Winter Fortress, a vast network of caves under a huge cliff. She wasn't interested in actually _joining_ them; she just wanted to find out whether they had any plans to deal with those pests, Wang Hu Zhong, in the near future. If so, they could expect support from the Garcias for certain. Argo had revenge on his mind for the chaos that had happened at Hades City.

The cloak had been easy to obtain – it was ordinary, pale brown, hooded, nothing special. She blended in with the others perfectly. Give it a few days and she would know people's names and faces, and be able to start putting out enquiries. If there was something being planned, she could go for a more direct approach.

That was when she saw him.

He was tall, easily as tall as Argo if not taller. He wore power and authority like a cloak, and those who came into contact with it seemed to shift subtly out of the way without ever appearing to move. It was impressive to say the least.

But not as impressive as the speed at which he suddenly materialised at her side and pulled her hood down.

"And what are _you_ doing here?" he asked, voice cold.

.

The next time, she hid her hair under a scarf and made sure to copy exactly what the person in front of her was doing. As it happened, that involved taking the vegetable peelings and other food scraps out of the kitchens and off to the compost heap outside. It was easy work, and the weather meant that keeping her hood up wasn't remarked on.

"Ugh," she muttered to the boy she was working with. "Why did I have to get this job on the day it's raining?"

He didn't even glance at her. "The amount it rains here, you were going to get it eventually. It's not as bad as training in the rain."

"Great blades, yes," she grumbled, internally celebrating that she'd found someone willing to talk. "I've got that tomorrow."

"No, you don't," said a voice from behind her. "You will leave, right now.

How on earth had he found her this time?

.

She watched the fortress for a number of days after that, watching the rotation of the guards, the times and numbers of the people entering and leaving, the clothes they wore, the way they walked, even the way they talked. Eventually, she was confident that she could imitate any member of the Beylin Fist perfectly.

The cave that made up the entrance hall was empty, and she walked through it with the high-held head and proudly-set shoulders that she had come to associate with the Beylin Fist bladers. All she had to do was appear exactly like the rest of them and there was no way that she could be caught.

"Ow!" she exclaimed as she walked straight into someone. She looked up at the man she had bumped into. She had to tilt her head right back...

Uh oh.

His spiky brown hair was dripping with water; perhaps he had just come from the baths, or training under the waterfall, as it wasn't raining outside. In the lantern-lit gloom of the cave-hall, his eyes looked almost black. She wasn't quite certain how she had managed to walk into him – the aura of strength around him was as present as ever. She recoiled a little.

"You again?" he asked, and the sound shook her. "I thought I told you to leave."

"You did," she began cheekily, but he just grabbed her by the shoulder and marched her back towards the main door.

"Don't even think about coming back," he said sternly. "Maybe _I_ have the patience to throw you out each time, but what will happen if you run into Bao?"

She frowned. "Who's Bao?"

His expression hardened. "_Out._"

It was the last word she heard before she was literally thrown out of the doors and into a large patch of thorns.

She sighed. She wished she knew his name. And who _was_ Bao?

.

She found out on her fourth attempt to infiltrate the system. She managed to sneak in and get along one of the darker side corridors out of the way, meaning that hopefully she wouldn't be spotted too quickly.

"I still say that Touryumon is our best bet, Aguma. It's all but confirmed that Wang Hu Zhong will be in attendance, and they will definitely reach the finals. If we get the right pairings in the first rounds, we can beat all four of them at once."

She froze, shrinking back into the shadows of a doorway as the voices approached.

"And I'm agreeing with you, aren't you listening, Bao?"

She knew _that_ voice. It had boomed in her ears every time she had walked into this place. The first one hadn't been familiar, but the second...

_Aguma._ That was his name. She smiled. It was good to have a name for his face, especially as she now felt like she knew it better than the faces of her brothers. So... so then the man next to him as the two strode down the dark hallway must be Bao.

Fascinated, she leaned forwards a little. Aguma was different when he was talking with Bao. It wasn't that he'd _lost_ the power and authority that she had come to associate with him, but it just didn't seem to be in effect. He might have been a head and a half taller than his companion, but he was speaking to Bao as if to an equal; happy, relaxed, confident. She could see the bond between them immediately. These two probably spent nearly every waking moment with each other, training and learning together until they now moved and even breathed as one being. It was as if they were soul-bound.

They passed her hiding place, and she held her breath. For a second, she thought she saw his eyes flash sideways to where she stood, but she must have been dreaming. She was completely hidden in the shadows.

"Bao, go on ahead. There's something I have to do quickly."

The smaller man looked up at Aguma. "I can wait."

"No, it's fine. I'll only be a minute." The slightest movement of Aguma's head clearly meant volumes to his friend, as Bao suddenly nodded, expression relaxing.

"I'll see you in the mess hall," he said, and carried on into the entrance cave before vanishing down the opposite corridor.

As his footsteps faded, the tall, brown-haired man looked straight across the hall to where she stood. "I am becoming tired of finding you in my home," he said clearly. "Come out."

Staying where she was wasn't an option. "Your name is Aguma," she said, stepping into the open.

"And yours is Selen. I have done my research, daughter of the Garcia family."

Oh, he was _good._ "Who's Bao? He's obviously important, but..."

Aguma examined her face carefully. "He is my greatest friend and truest ally," he said eventually. His eyes flashed. "And as the commander of our forces he's also the only person currently in this fortress with the authority to detain you on suspicion of trespassing and spying. All I need do is call him back and you will never leave this place you seem so determined to break in to."

"I wasn't spying! Or trespassing!"

"Says the girl who has repeatedly returned to this fortress and attempted to blend in with the rest of us, despite being ordered to stay away," he said sternly. "I know every member of the Beylin Fist. Did you really think that I wouldn't notice a new one?"

At least he was slightly gentler throwing her out this time – she landed in a bunch of heather rather than a thorn-bush.

.

The fifth time, she wasn't sure exactly why she was so determined to get back in. If Bao was the one to find her rather than Aguma, she'd never get back to her family. She'd probably never see daylight.

As it happened, climbing up the side of the fortress was an even worse idea than going in by the main gate. She had been heading for one of the small openings in the rock face that acted as windows for the upper levels, but she never made it. A hand grasped the back of her collar and pulled her straight up and through a lower opening. She had been trying to climb past one of the training rooms, and he had spotted her instantly.

"This is getting ridiculous." His voice was low and dangerous, and his eyes burnt in the gloom. "I am running out of patience with your insistence on getting inside. Do not try this again. Now, get out, or I will _throw_ you out."

In the end, he threw her anyway, though at least she landed in the heather again.

.

Her sixth time was much more interesting. There seemed to be a massive amount of activity going on, and whilst she managed to slot into place without anyone noticing, it was difficult to know who to follow. It looked like the tribe was mobilising for a full-scale assault.

"Everyone's busy today," she whispered to the boy next to her as they lined up for launching drill.

"Of course they are," he hissed back, not looking at her. "It's not every day that the Hundred Schools of Beylin Fist enter a major tournament. Touryumon is the biggest tag-team tournament in China, and with Aguma and Bao, there's no way we can lose!"

"I'm glad of your confidence in us, Takao, but please do not give any more information to those who are not part of Beylin Fist. Four hundred practice launches." The voice was soft but unmistakable. "I thought I told you never to come back here."

She sighed. She honestly didn't know how he did it. Silently, she wished she had his reactions as she pulled herself out of the heather for the third time in ten days.

.

The seventh time, she didn't even make it inside the gate. She was putting her cloak on out of sight of the main passageway into the Winter Fortress when a hand clamped down on her shoulder. His strength was astonishing.

"Don't," Aguma said, voice cold as he towered over her, all strength and muscle and enveloping power. "I grow weary of this game. It is long past time for you to go home."

.

She tried just one more time. This time, she managed to hide herself in a little clump of bladers coming back from the stream where they had been doing endurance training, and so she had reached the first interior courtyard when she realised that Aguma was standing on the far side of it. She had no choice but to continue following the blader group she was with – turning to hide now would just get his attention even quicker.

She drifted behind one of the pillars and hid there, hoping he hadn't noticed that the group was one member down. He shouldn't have – he was talking with Bao, eyes fixed on the other boy. She moved back a little so that she was completely hidden, but could still hear what was going on.

"I'm not saying that we shouldn't try," he was saying. "But we should take one of the groups with us. It's all very well having won Touryumon, but that just shows the world that _we_ are stronger than Beylin Temple. We need to leave people in no doubt that all of Beylin Fist's warriors are trained to the same level."

"I know, I know," Bao said. "But who should we take? If I go and ask for volunteers we'll end up taking the entire school and we just can't manage that."

"Beta Group," Aguma suggested. "They're strong, they're loyal and they need more training anyway. Putting them into a tournament would prove to the elders that you're confident in the abilities of all the Beylin Fist bladers, not just you and me."

Bao nodded. "You're right. You're always right."

"Not always. You made the call at Touryumon. I would have tried to fight on without using that attack to hurt you."

From her hiding place, she couldn't see Bao's expression, but from the sound in his voice she guessed he was smiling at his companion. "That's true. I'll go and assemble them. Wait here."

The sound of very faint footsteps heading off to the left faded, and Selen was suddenly very aware of the fact that she was now alone in the room with her usual captor. She couldn't move from her post or he would see her for certain.

"And just how long did you think you were going to be able to hide there?"

She jumped and spun, coming face to – well, chest with the man she had been trying to avoid. "Oh... hello Aguma."

The sheer force of his persona rolled over her. She had thought Argo was larger than life; he had nothing on Aguma, warrior of Beylin Fist. It made her hands shake, and she clenched them inside the sleeves of her shirt to hide it.

"Why do you keep coming back?" he asked, arms folded.

She knew the answer. She'd rehearsed it a hundred times. _I'm Selen Garcia. My brothers and I were in the World Championships. We heard you wanted to take down Beylin Temple, and we want in._

But face to face with him, looking up, up, up into those strange, dark blue-purple eyes, she realised that whilst her mission remained the same, the reason she kept coming back was vastly different.

She should have known the second time that he caught her and her immediate reaction had been wondering how to get inside again. She hadn't even tried to tell him that the Garcia family would throw all their considerable power behind his tribe should they choose to take on Wang Hu Zhong again. Instead, she had been trying to see how long she could stay in the fortress, not before she was found, but before _he_ found her.

"Because I like you," she whispered, the words blistering against her lips with the shock of her realisation. "I... I really like you."

A silence fell across the gulf between them, and she had no words that could cross it. His expression wasn't angry or shocked. It seemed to be something closer to curiosity. Finally, he broke the silence.

"You should go. Leave, now, and never come back."

She felt the words like a physical blow. "So... is that your way of saying that you're not interested?" Something of the Garcia spirit sparked back to life. She'd always thought that if she wanted something, she had to go out and get it. But what if what _she_ wanted didn't want her in return? "Are you that much of a coward that you can't tell me straight to my face?"

"No. It is my way of telling you that _I'm already taken._"

She blinked. In all her time sneaking around the Beylin Fist group, she had never seen more than one or two women – she'd assumed that this lack of girls had been why Aguma had always managed to find her so quickly. "What?"

"I'm taken," he repeated softly. "Engaged, actually."

"You're too young," she scoffed. "You can't be more than seventeen."

He straightened his spine. "It is no business of yours. Now go, before I get Bao involved."

That was a direct threat. She knew now how dangerous Bao was. "Fine," she muttered, but she didn't move. Neither did he. He had narrowed his eyes and was watching her very carefully.

"Even if I was not engaged, you would not be welcome in my house," he said. "Eight times now you have broken in to our fortress. Do you really expect me to be impressed? To admire your skills?"

"Yes! No-one else could do it!"

"Are you sure?"

She hesitated. No, she _wasn't_ sure. She'd never heard of any others breaking in, but then again she was never in the compound long enough to hear about any of them. Aguma always caught her too quickly.

"All you have taught me is that you do not listen, you do not consider your own safety or that of your family, and you do not respect authority of any sort. You seem to think that the rules don't apply to you. You would have no place in Beylin Fist, let alone in my family."

"And I suppose you can't possibly be with someone who isn't from Beylin Fist," she spat.

"That is true," he said calmly. "That is why Takara and I have been engaged since we turned fourteen."

She froze, utterly confused. "That's ridiculous. No-one gets engaged at fourteen."

His expression darkened so quickly that she was almost afraid. "It was arranged." She was about to open her mouth and point out that that meant it wasn't a _proper_ match when he continued "And, believe what you will, she is the only woman I will ever love. Now, leave. You have had your final warning."

She held her chin up defiantly. "Aren't you going to escort me out?"

"No." For a second, she thought she saw something almost gentle in his face. Then it vanished. "I think you know your own way out by now. Go."

.

It would be many, many years before she would realise that, as close to Bao as he was, he could have had her captured and held beneath the Winter Fortress for the rest of her life with no difficulty whatsoever, right from the first time he had caught her. But he had let her go every time, given her freedom and sent her on her way like a kind child releasing a trapped butterfly.

And, when she finally realised, she couldn't help but wonder why.

* * *

_Not all romances end in happily ever after..._


	7. Tag Team

_Apologies for the delay – FF decided to go down just as I was getting ready to post..._

* * *

**Day 7**

**Tag Team**

**(Sophie/Wales)**

If you asked her, Sophie would always say that she would never take a British boy to be her boyfriend, her lover, her husband. She was French, after all.

But a tag-team? She'd hesitated on hearing that it was a British man she was meant to be paired with for the European team, but apparently he did have a Cetus bey like hers, and that was something at least. There was a very specific technique to using Cetus, and a pair of them in the dish would surely be an impressive sight.

"Of course, he'll only speak English," she muttered to herself as she stood waiting in the airport with Konzern. She had been chosen for the team after passing through the Festival of Warriors, just as Konzern and Klaus had. But this boy hadn't. He'd won some national competition in his home country, which was apparently enough for him to be made a part of Excalibur.

"There he is," Konzern said quietly. "Red hair. Black suitcase."

The newcomer had spotted them too, it seemed. Of course, Konzern was unmistakable. After his absolute domination of the Festival of Warriors and the Gladiator's Challenge, he was a household name even before the influence of his family came into play. No self-respecting blader in the EU would have been unable to recognise him on the spot.

"Konzern," the red-haired boy called as he strode over. "There you are."

"Wales." Konzern held out his hand. "Welcome to Italy. This is the blader who will be your tag-team partner, Sophie."

He turned to her with a faint smile, but there was nothing but wariness in his eyes. "My lady."

"I'm no-one's _lady,_" she snapped. "And certainly not yours."

He raised one eyebrow, a trait she would come to envy him for. "I apologise. I had not been told that my tag-team partner was such a firecracker."

She wasn't quite sure if he was praising her or insulting her, and decided that as he was English it was probably the latter.

"So… you're called Wales?" She grinned wolfishly, the smile definitely not reaching her eyes. "Do you have any brothers?"

His eyes flicked to hers_._ "Yes, one."

"Oh," she said, forcing every ounce of disdain into her voice. "I was certain you'd have three. England, Ireland and Scotland."

Something like fire flashed in his blue eyes and he went very still. "With all due respect, his name is John. He's in the Army right now. I haven't heard from him in four months."

She didn't really know what to say to that, so she fell silent.

.

He was arrogant and proud, and every inch the English gentleman. His blood was as blue as the shirt that he wore. He held his head high no matter where he stood, and those who angered him quickly discovered that the edge of his tongue was viciously sharp.

As it turned out, though, she was wrong about one thing. He spoke English, French, Italian, German and enough Japanese to pass, though his French accent in particular was _awful._ She ignored it for as long as possible, but finally snapped "Do you even _know_ how to pronounce that word?"

To her utter shock, he laughed. "Of course I do," he said in French with a perfect Parisian accent. "I was wondering how long it would take for you to snap." He looked rather pleased with himself. "Ten days. Not bad."

She rolled her eyes and launched White Cetus into the practice dish. "You're ridiculous. Why did you bother keeping that horrid accent if you could speak like that?"

"Fun," he shrugged as Blue Cetus joined its white partner in the dish. "Your expression was one of the funnier ones I've seen."

"You do that to lots of people?"

"Only to the ones who assume that because I am English I am incapable of appreciating their culture and language."

That was definitely an insult. Probably. British people confused her.

.

The days passed by so very quickly, dragging them with relentless intent towards the opening of the World Championship and the next Festival of Warriors. Sophie and Wales spent almost every day together – they had to, in order to get their beys completely in sync. The paired Cetus blades were gradually becoming stronger and stronger, and soon they would be ready to enter their first tournament as a pair. Not a team – Excalibur was exclusively for the World Championships – but just them.

Excalibur itself finally had its fourth member. Klaus, a mountain of a man, had arrived from Germany two weeks after Wales had turned up. The whole group were gradually pulling together, and whilst Konzern was still distant and aloof a lot of the time, Sophie had found that both Wales and Klaus had a sense of humour that she could actually appreciate. If she had remained with Wales alone, she knew there would have been fights. Feathers were mostly smoothed now, but they could be ruffled by a single word. But with Klaus, it was strangely easy to get along with not only him but her British counterpart as well. They had started going out to concerts together, wandering through the streets and chattering aimlessly about everything except blading.

She found out that his brother John was nearly ten years older than he was, and that this was his last tour of duty. John was the one who had taught Wales to blade, but when Wales had quickly outclassed him, he had suggested to their parents that they find a proper coach for the boy who was quickly becoming the most powerful blader in their city.

In turn, she told him about the big house she had grown up in, and about the day when she had watched her mother fight off a man attempting to kidnap her and her daughter with her beyblade. Sophie had hidden behind her mother's legs and watched as the man tried to escape the rising wall of water that had held him until the police arrived. She told him about the recipes she liked to cook, and he taught her how to make tea the way he liked it. In return, she taught him how to draw human figures (with a fashion-designer mother, there was no way that Sophie would have made it through her childhood without picking up some lessons along the way.)

"Do you think we're friends?" she asked one day. "I know you're English and I'm French, but we've been tag-team partners for six months now."

"I think you're friends," Klaus put in. "Have you ever noticed that when you're talking to each other you don't talk in English or French specifically? You sort of slip between the two. I've tried to follow the conversations and I really can't."

Wales looked at him. "Really?" he asked. "Oh. I'd never noticed."

Klaus laughed. "You're doing it now."

.

"Konzern's Twin Jewels, they're calling us," she reported, throwing a newspaper down in front of him. "Seems we made quite the impression."

Their victory at the All-European Tag-Team Tournament had been resounding and unsurprising. There were very few beys there that could have stood up to either of the Cetus beys alone, let alone the two in perfect sync. Buoyed up by their success, Wales had suggested that they practice even more to create a joint special move. If they could master such an advanced move, the World Championship would be theirs for the taking with no problem.

"Hmmm... let's see. '_The tag-team from the newly created European team will be heading for the World Championships in July... Its captain Julian Konzern was unavailable for comment... clear that all the members are prodigious in strength... no news so far on the members of the teams from other countries.'_. I'm surprised they're not complaining about the fact that we've got the whole European Union to draw on for our team whilst everywhere else is drawing on single countries. Japan has its own team, India, Russia, China..."

"They're saying that there's going to be a continent-wide search for Africa's bladers," she said. "It doesn't matter. In terms of power, only the Americans can match us, and we've got a weapon none of them have."

"What's that?"

"Your sarcasm."

He stared at her. "Sophie, I think you just made a joke," he marvelled. "Who are you, and what have you done with my friend?"

She rolled up the newspaper and hit him over the head with it.

.

"This is starting to get ridiculous."

They were all together in the kitchen of Julian's house (yes, they called him Julian now. It was quite an honour, Sophie had decided, to call the heir to the Konzern family by his first name, especially when he was your friend), eating breakfast. It was two days since Hades City had fallen, and the first proper details had started to make their way into the newspapers – along with some pictures. It seemed that the favoured one, at least in the European newspapers, was of Sophie and Wales walking out of the wreck of the city, Julian beside them. To the delight of all the tabloids, the angle of the photograph made it appear that Sophie and Wales were holding hands.

Wales glanced at Sophie over the rim of his tea cup as she dropped the newspaper. "I can't see the problem with it."

"You _can't_?" She threw her hands up in despair. "They're implying that we're _together!_"

"No they're not," he sighed, and put his cup down. "That's the sports newspaper. They are surprisingly lacking in gossip pertaining to romance."

"Still," she fumed. "I'm fed up of people assuming that we're romantically involved just because we're in a tag-team with each other."

"Wait, you're not together?" Klaus asked from his seat at the table. "Oi! Konzern! You owe me twenty euros!"

Wales and Sophie turned to stare at their team-mates in absolute horror. "You were _betting_ on us getting together?" Sophie asked.

"Of course we were," Julian said, leaning against the counter. "Whyever not?"

"Because we are not and never will be together," they said in perfect unison. Klaus burst out laughing.

"You two really need to work on that act if you want people to actually believe it, you know..."

.

"You know," Wales said three weeks later, lying on his back on the beach that was deserted apart from the four members of Excalibur, "I love Julian. At least, I love what his family name can do to a gorgeous beach like this one."

"I agree completely," Sophie sighed happily, stretching. "Who else could clear the best beach in the area _and_ keep all the paparazzi away on the nicest weekend of the year?"

"Enjoy it whilst you can," Klaus called as he wandered past them, a surfboard tucked under his arm. "Konzern's talking about getting us to do beach training here because it's harder to run on sand."

Wales flapped a hand at him. "It's fine. There's no tournaments for ages. He can tell us to train all he likes, I'm taking today off."

"Hmm. Me too."

They lay there in silence for a while, listening to Klaus falling off his surfboard, and the soft _thudthud-thudthud_ of Antonius' hooves as Julian galloped him up and down the hard sand at the water's edge. It was nice just to be able to relax for once. Being in the public eye all the time was fun, but exhausting, and after the stress and worry of the events at Hades City there had been more press interviews than ever. All of them wanted to know about the picture and what it might – or might not – imply for the progression of Europe's favourite tag-team. Sophie was growing tired of insisting that it was a case of camera angles, not reality. It hadn't stopped the rumours, of course. Nothing ever would.

"Maybe we should try it."

She sat up with a jolt and looked down at him. "What?"

He opened one eye, then the other. "Well, everyone else seems to think we're together. Is there any particular reason why we shouldn't give it a go?"

"Wh-" she spluttered. "I... I thought you didn't like French girls."

"I don't." He sat up. "Not in general." He suddenly reddened and looked away. "I mean, it's... I don't... it's not like I think you're ugly. You're... um... it's nice. Battling with you. Um. Damn, this is all coming out wrong. Sorry."

She stared at him. "Are... is that your way of saying that you like me?"

He squared his shoulders and looked her straight in the face. "Shall we?" he asked.

He hadn't actually stated _what, _but she knew him well enough to understand exactly what he was asking_. _"You are the most ridiculously British and equally most ridiculously unromantic man in the world," she sighed. "At least ask me in French next time."

His face split into a smile that was just the right side of a smirk. "There's going to be a next time?"

.

If you asked her, Sophie would always say that she would never take a British boy to be her boyfriend, her lover, her husband.

She would also say that sometimes she was wrong.


	8. Better Than I Know Myself

**Day 8  
**

**Better Than I Know Myself**

**(established Madoka/Dynamis)**

There was an umbrella on her desk.

This was odd for a number of reasons. Firstly, it wasn't her umbrella. Secondly, it wasn't raining. Thirdly, it hadn't been there when she had left the room to go and answer a call from the shop.

"What's _this_ doing here?" she asked out loud.

"It will rain before you get home from the shops. You should take it with you."

She blinked and looked across the room to the sofa. "I'm not even _going_ to the shops."

He just smiled. "Yes you are."

And he was Dynamis, which meant that he was completely right. Just before midday, she discovered that the drill-bit she was using was going blunt, and if she wanted to repair Flash Sagittario before Kenta came to pick it up the next day, she was going to need a new one.

"Stop looking at me like that," she scolded as she felt Dynamis' grin aimed at the back of her head as she pulled on her coat. "I'll take the umbrella, don't you worry!"

"I never worry, my wise Madoka."

And it was just as well that she took the umbrella. Even though the sun was shining brightly when she left, the clouds roared in whist she was hunting for exactly the right bit, and it was pouring with rain by the time that she had made her purchases. As she walked home, she watched other people scurrying past her with their bags held over their heads or huddling under the canopies of shops and restaurants, wondering aloud where this weather had come from.

He was in the kitchen when she got back, a cup of hot tea just poured the moment that she walked in waiting for her. She shook her head as she took it from him. This was not the first time that something like this had happened. Somehow, Dynamis could read her even better than Tsubasa could. He claimed it was the guidance of the heavens that told him, but she figured that he just knew her well – better than she knew herself.

After the battle with Nemesis was over, all of the Legendary Bladers and their friends had been given shelter in a large WBBA-owned house so that they could all recover somewhat from the stress of battle. As it turned out, this was the best possible thing that could have happened, as a number of them ended up with significant PTSD that only the other Legendary Bladers could understand.

It was also a good thing because it led to Dynamis, Yuki and Madoka having a number of rather fierce battles over what the stars actually were. Yuki had very quickly come to the conclusion that these fights weren't necessarily about the actual composition of stars and had bowed out, leaving Dynamis and Madoka to fire ideas back and forth in increasingly friendly tones.

It had only taken three mock-arguments for both of them to become inseparable. Surprisingly, no-one had really taken much notice when the news began to circulate that the two of them were in fact _together _(Hikaru could keep a secret, but Yuu – who had very sharp hearing and rather too much curiosity – could not), and Kyouya eventually pointed out that whilst the newspapers liked to pair Madoka with Gingka, the bladers who knew both of them had been able to see that the two weren't boyfriend-girlfriend material so much as brother and sister. She had to admit that he had a point. Gingka was bright and brilliant, and bounced from place to place. She wanted someone a little calmer, to say the least.

In that, Dynamis was perfect. He was also in her house, which was slightly confusing.

"Why are you here?" she asked. "I thought you were still staying with Tsubasa and Yuu. Have they gone off on that training adventure they keep talking about and left you behind?"

"No," he said. "I have come to say goodbye."

Her heart skipped a beat. "You... you're going?"

He lowered his eyes. "I have to. Already I have been here for too long. Perhaps Nemesis has been defeated, but there are other evils in this world. I must stand guard against them, and guide the warriors who come to fight them. That is my task, as it has always been."

She shook her head, horrified. "I... I don't want you to go." She felt like she had barely begun to know him. Surely he couldn't be leaving _now?_

He reached out and laid one hand against her cheek. "Do you really believe that I am leaving because I want to, Madoka?"

She leaned her cheek into his touch. No, of course she didn't believe that. But it still didn't make it any better.

"I must. I should not have stayed here so long. The Temple is not made to be without its Guardian. Once I have returned to it, I will not leave again, not unless some great evil is threatening the world once more."

"You could stay," she whispered. "Or I could come with you. There has to be a way we could stay together."

"We can't," he said quietly. "I cannot stay and you cannot go. I belong on my mountain as its Guardian, protecting it from those who still seek to use its secrets for evil. You belong here in your shop, helping those who come to you for aid. Both of us have our tasks that have been set before us, and we cannot go against the will of the heavens."

"But... but if I can't leave the shop..."

"We may be star-crossed, my wise Madoka, but not forever." His smile was like lightning in the desert. "The heavens cannot always keep us apart. Your place is here until someone rises to take your place. When you are ready, when you have trained your apprentice and all is finished here for you, if you still want me after all that time... then I shall still be yours."

Madoka looked up into his pale eyes, one of them hidden behind his paler hair. "You... you would wait for me?"

"I waited all of my life for the Legendary Bladers to arrive. I will wait the rest of it for you."

"Stop being romantic," she muttered, trying to hide her blush. "You're teasing me again."

"No, I'm not. I would not tease you about this." He dropped the hand on her cheek to her shoulder. "I _will_ wait for you."

She couldn't bear the expression on his face, and stepped forwards into his arms so that she didn't have to meet his eyes. He smelled of dust and electricity – he must have been battling not long ago.

"I'll miss you," she murmured into the fabric of his cloak, determined not to cry in front of him. "Can I at least come and visit you?"

He drew in a deep breath and tightened his arms around her. "Of course you can," he said. "From what I've been hearing, I believe I am likely to be inundated with visitors. Ryuto wants to hear about the legends of the Maze of Mist Mountain. Yuu wants to visit Tithi. I think Kyouya wants to use the Maze as a training program. Aguma and Bao want to study the records on the walls of the Temple and the Circle of Monoliths to find out more about the First Star, and see if it matches with some of their people's ancient legends. I'm sure that Gingka won't miss an opportunity to meet up with all the rest of the Legendary Bladers. You will always be welcome there."

"Tithi wants to learn about reading the stars, doesn't he?" she said. "So you'll be training your own apprentices, in a way."

"He's not the first," he pointed out. "I believe you know a young man called Ryuutarou?"

She drew back and stared at him. "_You_ trained him?"

"Yes. And a more stubborn student I have never had." Dynamis smiled. "But you will come to visit me many times before you choose to stay, my wise Madoka."

"Is that what the heavens foretell?" she asked, and was amazed to hear him laugh.

"Yes," he said as he leaned down to kiss her. "At least, that's how I interpret it."


	9. Well Kept Secrets

_I can tell that I don't really like this pairing. This ended up as the most dysfunctional relationship I've written so far... and it doesn't really head into _romance_ at all. Just the precursor. It's also really short.  
_

* * *

**Day 9**

**Well Kept Secrets**

**(Lera/Nowaguma)**

No-one ever knew, that was the strangest thing.

They had met as young children, orphaned and put up for adoption. Nowaguma was smaller than Lera was, and had silently hidden behind her.

"He doesn't want to be separated from me!" she had shouted at the man who was trying to take him away to his new home. "He says he wants me to go too!"

It had taken several hours of hysterical crying from both children for the man who had wanted to adopt Nowaguma to give up. "I'll talk to the wife," he'd muttered to the orphanage officer. "See if she wants to take another."

But he hadn't come back. Lera was glad. That way she could stay with Nowaguma. Of course, they couldn't stay in the orphanage forever, she knew that. But she didn't want to leave him. She didn't want him to leave her.

Four weeks after the disastrous attempt, a man in a very smart suit had appeared at the orphanage door. He had taken a look at all of the children and then pointed to Lera. "Her," he said. "She'll do."

"Nowaguma says he wants to come too," Lera told him proudly, gripping Nowaguma's hand as if it was the last anchor to the earth before she floated away.

"That's fine," the tall man said. "How would you like to be an astronaut?"

Astronauts flew. Astronauts weren't teased about their hair. Astronauts were painted on ceilings and walls and admired by everyone and _yes_ she absolutely wanted to be one. "Nowaguma wants to be one too."

"Then he shall come too. Is that alright?" This last was addressed to the orphanage officer.

Nowaguma looked up at the man they would come to call Anton with absolute adoration in his eyes, and didn't say a word.

.

The work was hard, much harder than she'd expected. But the numbers came easily to her and so it wasn't too bad. There was another boy at the big space centre, called Aleksei. He was nice, but he wasn't like Nowaguma. She couldn't understand him perfectly enough to know what his next words were going to be.

The days flew past, and she was surprised to find that she had spent nearly seven years at the centre without really noticing. It was her thirteenth birthday when the three of them were first given their space-suits. They were to have their first proper anti-gravity experience soon, and they needed to learn how to move in the bulky suits.

"Ugh!" Lera exclaimed. "I'll need anti-gravity just to _move_ in this!"

"You'll grow into it," Anton told her from the other side of the room, where he was watching one of the scientists help Aleksei into his suit. "We'll do some training in them under normal gravity conditions, and then when you are in zero gravity, you won't have any problems. What do you think, Nowaguma?" He glanced over at the black-haired boy, the most muscular of all of them. "You should have no problem with this."

"I-it's... I... I think..."

"He says it's amazing!" Lera interrupted, grabbing her helmet and jamming it on her head. "This is perfect!"

The scientists smiled at the group, and Anton looked very proud. "You'll be in space very soon at this rate," he said. "That is, if they don't cut our funding."

"Lera," Aleksei asked quietly, leaning in close to her. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course!" she smiled, tugging on one of the boots.

"How long has Nowaguma had that stutter?"

.

"But you _don't_ have a stutter!" she exploded later, hidden away in Nowaguma's room. "I don't know what he's talking about!"

He looked up at her. "That's the first time that I've really spoken in front of them, you know. I was... I was scared."

She frowned. Now that she thought about it, Nowaguma had always been the quiet one. He'd handed in his homework perfectly, but he never volunteered answers in class. It was always Aleksei and Lera herself who spoke. Whenever Nowaguma had blinked down at his desk and muttered something almost inaudible, Lera had jumped to his defence, knowing exactly what he was going to say every time.

"You... you don't mind that I speak for you, do you?" A shock of horror ran through her. She'd been doing it for so long that it was second nature to translate his stammers.

"You always speak for me," he said softly. "I don't know... I'm too scared. You're so much more confident than me. The words get tangled up in my head when I try to talk. It's better if you're the one talking – at least you're loud."

She put her head on his shoulder; he was barely taller than her. "I couldn't be loud if I didn't have to speak up for you," she said. "You'll always love me, won't you?" It wasn't a question. It was a plea.

He looked at her, and there was something like pain in his eyes. "Who else will I love?" He sighed. "You love me too, right?"

"Of course. I always will. You know that. We have to stay together."

He smiled sadly. "Maybe you should say it more. You spend so much time talking for me that I think you've forgotten that you have your own voice."

.

And so for years they had kept the secret of where they had come from, of what they meant to each other – of just why they had to rely on each other so much.

They just didn't have anyone else.


	10. Letters Home

**Day 10**

**Letters Home**

**(Hikaru/?)**

Dear Mum,

I miss you a lot. It took a lot longer to get here than I thought, and now I'm here it's not as great as I thought it would be. I had some rookie bladers come up to me outside the town and try to get me to pay some kind of toll to get past. Aquario did its thing, though, and they let me past pretty quick!

I've met a lot of strong bladers already, though I haven't battled them.

One of the bladers I met has helped me out a lot, which is nice considering that he seems to be the gang leader around here. He's helped me find a place to stay and no, it's not with him. I know how to be safe.

Anyway, it's late.

Love you, Mum,

Hikaru.

.

Dear Mum,

Sorry I haven't written for a while. It got a bit hectic around here. Turns out there's a lot of _very_ good bladers here who are eager to battle with me and each other. One guy tried to pretend to be the strongest one because apparently this other one – Gingka Hagane, his name is – was sick, but it was painfully obvious that he wasn't as strong as he said he was. And then he turned up again and demanded another battle and he _beat_ me!

Turns out he went into a crazy training regime to develop a special move that he used against me. He hadn't had it when we first fought. Don't know what he was thinking, trying to defeat me without a special move when I've got _Infinite Assault_.

But never mind. I'm going to become the strongest blader in the country no matter how long it takes me. If I lose, I'll just get up again. I can't give up. That's what you said.

Lots of love,

Hikaru

.

Dear Mum,

Things are quiet around here. Gingka and most of the strong bladers have disappeared. Remember the guy I told you about? The one who found me a place to stay? Well, he's gone too. Not sure where. The last time I saw him, he muttered something about a dark nebula, but I did astronomy and you can't _have_ a dark nebula. Nebulas have to be visible, and a dark one wouldn't be.

He's been helping me a lot. I told him he didn't have to, but he did anyway. I think you'd like him. Most people think he's really scary and nasty, but he's actually really nice once you get past all the shouting. But he doesn't shout at me, just in case you were worried. Just at his opponents. I'll battle him one day, but I haven't yet. I'm looking forwards to it.

Love,

Hikaru.

.

Dear Mum,

I miss you more than ever. I wish you were here so that I could talk to you instead of just writing these letters that you'll never get. I've got so many questions for you. When did you know you were in love with Dad? Because you know my helpful guy? I... I think I might have a crush on him. I was really happy when I saw him again the other day, walking down the streets of Bey City like he owned the place. I figured that was normal, but then I realised that I hadn't even noticed that the rest of his friends were with him.

How do you tell if you really have a crush on someone or if you're just good friends?

It's scary, not knowing anything. I don't really have any female friends I can ask either. There's almost no female bladers, even here in the heart of Bey City. There's Gingka's mechanic friend, but she's younger than me and I don't know her that well.

I miss you, Mum,

Lots of love,

Hikaru.

.

Dear Mum,

Is it alright if I borrow an idea from you and Dad? I remembered that Dad showed me a notebook he'd filled with letters to you before you started courting, but he didn't send any of them until he reached the end of the book. That way he knew that it wasn't just a short-lived crush between you and him. I thought I'd do something similar, but my guy isn't really the letter-receiving type. So I figured I'd write to you about him. If, by the time that I fill up this notebook with letters to you, I still think I'm in love with him, I'll ask him what he thinks of me.

I'm scared, Mum. I've never felt like this before.

Love,

Hikaru.

.

Dear Mum,

He's kind. He's sweet when he wants to be. He's ferocious in battle. He couldn't care if I was a boy or a girl, as long as I'm a good blader. But he seems pretty happy that there's girls out there who want to battle on the same stage as the boys. I'll definitely beat him soon.

If that intimidates him, though, then he's not the one for me. I don't want a boy who's _scared_ of a girl just because she can beat his beyblade three ways to Tuesday.

Love you,

Hikaru

.

Dear Mum,

I've enrolled in a massive tournament called the Survival Battle. It's on a deserted island somewhere off the coast. I'm not sure exactly what it entails, but it seems like everyone's taking part! Yes, him too. I'll use it to face off with him, and I'll beat him because I'm definitely going to win.

I learnt something new about him today. He's got a softer side. Pretty much no-one else knows. He tries to bluster and bluff that he's big and strong and aggressive, but really he's got a heart of gold.

So far, I still think I like him. But I still want to be sure.

Lots of love,

Hikaru

.

Dear Mum,

There's going to be a big battle tournament in this town soon, but in order to enter you have to have 50,000 beypoints! I'm determined to get in, though, because Gingka and his friends are trying to get into it as well.

The Survival Battle was a bit of a disaster. I did fight him, but other bladers got involved and it got messy. I didn't even get to the top six, though I managed the top eight.

The kid who won, a little boy called Yuu, was the one who wanted Battle Bladers set up. That's what this big contest is called.

Got to go – we're all meeting at the abandoned Colosseum outside the town for one last battle before we go our separate ways. He'll be there, so at least I can say goodbye before he becomes my rival.

Love,

Hikaru.

.

Dear Mum,

Sorry I haven't written for a while. I've been busy gathering points all around the country. So's he; we've been running into each other at a number of tournaments, but neither of us have got enough yet.

I'm more certain now that I like him. I always start scanning the crowds at battles to see if he's there, and when he is I can't help smiling and going over to say hello. Even if I'm having a bad day, seeing him cheers me up.

I've got another four thousand three hundred points to go, and then I'll be in Battle Bladers. Even in the situation where I don't win (which won't happen, I promise) I'll still be one of the best bladers in Japan.

Miss you lots,

Hikaru.

.

Dear Mum,

I've made it in! I'm in Battle Bladers, along with the best bladers in the country! I'm going to win it and then no-one will be able to say that girls can't beyblade.

He's made it in too, not that anyone was surprised. He's a really good blader, though his style is pretty different to mine. There's only sixteen people who actually made it, which is pretty convenient as can you imagine the chaos if there were seventeen? The first-round battles would be terrible to organise!

The only bad thing is that the tournament is being run by the Dark Nebula. Remember I told you about them ages ago? I thought they were just going to be sponsoring it, but no. They're actually _running_ the whole show, and a lot of their top bladers got into the competition. There's one guy called Ryuga that everyone is frightened of. He's got a bey that uses reverse-rotation, and he's incredibly strong. Gingka said that he's trying to win so that he can take over the world, but I think that's a bit of a stretch. Just one bey can't take over the world. You'd need the strength of _hundreds_ of beys to do that.

At the moment, I'm up against him in the first round. Let's see if he can reverse his way through the _Infinite Assault_! I've got to beat him or I'll never reach the top.

Lots of love,

Hikaru

.

Dear Mum,

I'm really sorry that I haven't written in a while.

It's been a long week, and I've been -

It's been a long week, and -

I fought against -

I don't know how to write this letter. I'm sorry. I'll write later.

Hikaru

.

Dear Mum,

Sorry about that last letter.

I have to tell you. I didn't win Battle Bladers. I lost to Ryuga. I can only just about write his name. I don't know how Gingka beat him, but he was terrifying. I was defeated so badly that I don't think I ever want to pick up Aquario again just in case I have a flashback to that battle. I ended up in hospital because of it, and I still have nightmares about it almost every night.

On the other hand, I'm now more certain than ever that I'm in love. Not fluffy, helpless, girly love. Properly in love, like you and Dad were. I hate that something so bad had to happen for something good to come out of it, but that was how it happened.

He came and sat next to my bed in the hospital, though he wasn't in great shape himself. I didn't want to talk about the battle and it seemed like he didn't either, so I just sat there and watched him. He didn't seem to mind. Eventually, he started telling me about how he started blading, about his gang the Face Hunters, about how much had changed since Gingka arrived in town, about all these things I never knew.

So I told him about you. He said he was sorry, and all the usual things people say when they hear about you being gone, but I think he actually meant it. It was nice, just being able to talk for once. It was really quiet in the hospital. We'd all gone outside just after Gingka beat Ryuga, but the hospital staff wanted us all back inside for some tests. Apparently I have to take it easy for a few days, but otherwise I'm okay.

I was scared when I woke up in the hospital. The last time I woke up in a hospital it was next to you and you were gone. But I didn't mind going back so much, because he came too.

He's gentle and caring, and he would fight to the death for his friends. And I love him.

I love you too. I missed you so much today. It was nice to talk about you with him, though.

All my love,

Hikaru.

.

Dear Mum,

I've filled up my notebook with letters to you, and my feelings haven't changed. I'm going to ask him. I'm a bit scared, but I thought about what you'd say. I think you'd tell me that you believe in me, just like you did when I said I wanted to be the best blader in the world.

I love you, Mum,

Hikaru

.

Dear Mum,

He said yes,

Hikaru

.

Dear Mum,

He said yes, he said yes. I know I've said that already. But he said yes. He looked quite surprised when I asked. Apparently he thought I was interested in his friend, not him. His friend is good-looking and all, but he's one of the bad-boys that you told me to be careful of. He's just not as _nice_ as Benkei.

That's his name. Benkei. I think I forgot to tell you at the beginning. Sorry about that. But I love him, and he loves me, and – no, I'm not going to write that. That's way too cliché.

So I might not be the best blader in Japan yet, but I want you to know that I'm happy. I've been given a whole group of new friends, who are incredibly strong bladers. I've met Madoka, who's an amazing blade mechanic, and Tsubasa and Yuu who proved that just because you're on the wrong side doesn't mean you're bad.

I've learnt so much from all of them. But most of all from Benkei. He taught me to have hope again.

You would like him, Mum. He wants to come and say hello to you when we're next in the area. I'd like to introduce him.

See you soon,

All my love,

Hikaru


	11. Falling

**Day 11**

**Falling**

**(Sophie/King)**

_I fell for you_

_Step by step_

_Wall by wall_

_Tumbling down._

.

She hadn't expected this at all. It was completely outside her sphere of knowledge, and frankly it left her baffled. It shouldn't have worked out like this. It shouldn't have been so simple.

Of all the people for her head and her heart to agree on, it had been _him._

_._

_I fell for you_

_Day by day_

_Hour by hour_

_Winging by._

.

She watched him as he launched over and over again, as devoted to battling as he was to anything he did. Sometimes the blade circled clockwise, sometimes anticlockwise. He was master of both. Perhaps his blade was not Excalibur, but it was powerful nonetheless. The huge figure of Mars was more than a match for most. In battle he was unstoppable, unlimited. Only the most powerful bladers could hope to stand up to his strength.

.

_In the silence and the noise_

_I saw it all_

_In the breath and release_

_I felt myself fall_

.

She wondered, sometimes, at her own wisdom. Why she had pursued him. Why she'd forsaken a hundred other suitors who were probably more suitable.

Why she'd chosen _King._

He wasn't especially noticeable, she'd thought at first. If she hadn't stopped to take a second look, perhaps she would have moved right by him and missed one of the best things to fly into her life.

.

_I fell for you_

_Drop by drop_

_Line by line_

_Voice so soft._

.

She'd once described him to Mei-Mei, who had smiled and said "Oh, I love it when team-mates get together. I think it's adorable."

Naturally, Sophie had been immensely confused. King certainly wasn't her team-mate.

That was the first time that she had realised just how many similarities there were between her captain and the boy she loved.

A European background. An armoured humanoid constellation. A blade rotating left and right. An unrivalled power. A link to a powerful European sword.

She had spent the rest of the week in shock, wondering whether she had decided she was in love with King because she was actually in love with Julian, or whether it was the other way round, or whether she only liked the black-haired boy because she knew her captain and admired him. She didn't know what it was.

.

_I fell for you_

_Laugh by laugh_

_Smile by smile_

_Secretly._

.

Then she met him again, and really looked at him and really listened. And she found out that maybe he and Julian shared a very similar blade, but that was it. In actuality they were utterly different. King was feisty and energetic and full of enthusiasm for anything and everything. He couldn't care less whether he had to live up to other people's expectations, because he just wanted to blade against the strongest bladers in the world, who also happened to be his friends.

Julian bore the weight of his family on his slender shoulders with pride, dignity and gravitas. King sparkled through life like a hurricane of fireworks. It was impossible to be sad when he was around.

It was impossible not to fall in love with him.

.

_In the silence and the noise_

_I saw you rise_

_In the dawning of the sun_

_I saw myself fall_

.

Her background proudly declared that she _should_ have gone for a gentleman, someone with money and a title to spare, perhaps a mansion or two. Someone like Julian. But instead, she'd picked the young man with hair that bled white when he attacked at full strength, with bright blue eyes and a smile that spoke of nothing but a thankfulness at being alive.

She, too, was thankful that she was alive. It meant that she got to see him every day.

_._

_Phoenix and flame_

_Circle unending_

_We rise but to fall_

_Empire and King_

.

Falling for him hadn't been hard. He was the only person confident enough to walk right up to her and ask her out, not knowing about her titles or her past or her money or anything. He just knew her as a blader, as a woman, as the girl he'd also fallen for.

In the end, it had been far easier than she had ever thought.

_._

_I fell for you_

_Sound by sound_

_Hush by hush_

_I fell._


	12. Persistence

**Day 12**

**Persistence**

**(Mei-Mei/Sora)**

It was definitely one of the weirder days in Beylin Temple's history when Sora arrived. And yes, that was including the day which involved four peacocks, a dish of half-cooked rice and a troop of monkeys with hats on.

"I'm here to learn," the young man announced as he stood in front of the gates, facing Chi-Yun, who looked more than a little surprised to see someone there. After all, Beylin Temple was miles away from anywhere else, and precious few outside the Temple itself even knew where the place was. "I want to get stronger, so I can surpass Gingka."

"Explain why you're _here, _then," Da Shan interrupted, prowling out of the main gates like a panther. "Sora."

"You know each other?" Chi-Yun spluttered. Da Shan's eyes narrowed.

"Yes. He's my half-brother. Though why he decided to come _here_ to train I do not know, as we've only met one time before."

Mei-Mei put her head on one side, examining the newcomer. He certainly had Da Shan's hair, though his eyes were closer to Chi-Yun's than Wang Hu Zhong's captain's. She grinned. She could see the family resemblance.

"I know that you've sworn to defeat Gingka," Sora explained. "That's my goal too. I want to train with you."

"And why should we let you?" Da Shan asked, voice cool.

"Because I'm strong," Sora said. "And I'll work hard. I'll do anything you tell me."

Da Shan glanced across at Chao Xin, who shrugged. "I see no reason why not," the brown-haired young man pointed out. "He's technically blood-related, so that's not an issue."

"Fine," Da Shan said. "Sora, you may join the first level trainees. We will allow you here on probation for three weeks. If you do not wish to leave at the end of those three weeks, we will consider allowing you to join. For now, join the fourth squadron over there."

"Thanks, Da Shan!"

Instantly, Da Shan's expression tightened. "You will refer to all your elders as 'sir' in this place. Do you understand?"

Sora blinked. "I... I understand, sir."

"Good. Then follow me."

Mei-Mei moved to allow Da Shan to pass her, and the movement caught Sora's attention. He halted as if rooted to the spot, staring at her in astonishment. His red-brown eyes went very wide. "Oh," he whispered. "You're really pretty."

And then he went bright red and looked away, and scurried off after Da Shan.

"What was that about?" Chao Xin asked, coming up behind her. Mei-Mei couldn't be any more articulate than to shrug helplessly.

.

He was absolutely fascinated by her. It wasn't that he'd never seen a girl battle at such high standards (he'd watched Battle Bladers and the World Championship, after all). It was the way she threw herself at her tasks, her utter determination to remain worthy of the team even though she was an integral part of it anyway. Her team-work with Chi-Yun and Chao Xin was astonishing, especially when Sora finally got to see their joint special moves.

As soon as he started training with them, he realised just how much further he had to go before he could match the Chinese bladers. The rest of the boys and girls in his training class thought nothing of a thousand practice launches in water, whilst he struggled to keep up with the relentless pace. The acrobatics – apart from the leaps, where he excelled – were difficult at best and impossible otherwise.

But he kept going. He had to defeat Gingka. He had to impress Da Shan. He had to stay close to the girl who absorbed all the attention he had left.

.

It was less than a week after he first arrived that Sora first bounced up to Mei-Mei and, grinning broadly, asked her if she would go out with him. Shocked, Mei-Mei backed off a step and launched Aquario at him (they were meant to be doing pairs-training, but he had left his dish to come and speak with her). Cyber Pegasus scrambled to get away from the sudden onslaught, but failed miserably and went sailing out of the dish.

"Back to your place!" Da Shan roared, echoed by the training master. Sora grinned sheepishly and darted back to his confused battle partner, only to find himself grabbed by the ear and hauled off to the outside assault course by the training master. He wasn't allowed to rejoin the group until he had finished the course in under fifteen minutes.

.

Not that this dissuaded him. A week later, when all the training for the day was done and everyone was getting ready to go inside for a well-deserved dinner, Mei-Mei once again found herself faced with a bright-eyed, pleading expression. She couldn't deny that the boy had guts. But she still said no. She was a blader first, and whilst he was sweet, she wasn't sure she liked him _that_ way.

To her surprise, she found that this gentle let-down didn't do anything to dissuade him either. He came back at the same time the following week, the same expression and the same question on his tongue. Faintly amused, she told him "No" once again, and watched as he almost bounced away, apparently just as happy at being rejected as if she had agreed.

How very strange. Boys confused her sometimes.

The next week, he was set for re-examination to see if he still wished to remain in the Temple to train. No-one was very surprised when Sora insisted on staying and moving into the higher level groups, though Da Shan was intrigued to note that Sora's eyes were indecisive. Not over whether or not to stay, it seemed, but in _why_ he stayed.

.

Time passed, and the bladers of Beylin Temple grew stronger. Sora in particular rocketed up the ranks, his resolve to beat Gingka burning just as brightly as that of Wang Hu Zhong.

And every week, on a Wednesday, he would come bounding up to Mei-Mei as the group were heading inside for dinner, and ask her out.

He genuinely hadn't expected to meet someone like her in a place like this. She was like light on the water, brilliant and blinding and altogether beautiful. He was going to keep asking her until she either got annoyed with him (he couldn't have stood that) or said no (he couldn't have stood that either, but he would brave it for her sake) or said yes.

So when every single week she just shook her head with a kind of half-laugh, blushing and looking away, his heart hoped that maybe next time she'd say yes.

He knew she wasn't the kind of girl who would let him continue asking if she felt nothing for him at all – she was too straightforward for that. And so he kept hoping, wishing, praying.

.

"If he's annoying you, say the word and we'll kick him out," Chao Xin promised one evening just after Sora had scampered away once more. Mei-Mei thought that was a bit rich coming from the Casanova of the team.

"No, he's fine," she said. "I don't mind it, honestly."

"That's very confusing," Chi-Yun said. "If you aren't going to say yes, why do you let him keep asking?"

"Women are confusing, Chi-Yun," Chao Xin sighed. "Take it from me."

"I like him," Mei-Mei admitted. "But I just don't know if I like him like _that."_

Chao Xin and Chi-Yun exchanged glances. "Chi-Yun is definitely confused now," Chi-Yun said. Chao Xin put a comforting hand on his shoulder with an expression of only faintly disguised amusement.

Mei-Mei didn't tell them that she hadn't finished her sentence. She didn't know if she liked him like that _yet._

.

"Mei-Mei?"

It never grew old, watching her turn around as he called out to her. His heart skipped a beat every time, even though this was the (he quickly counted) twenty-second time.

"Yes, Sora?"

"Would you come down to the town with me?"

She paused for a long moment, and his breath caught. Her eyes were so beautiful in the moonlight. She seemed to hesitate, and then all of a sudden, blurted "Yes!" -

- and vanished into the dinner hall before he could even say another word.

Sora wasn't sure how he got back to his room that night. Later, he would be fairly certain that he flew.

.

She was cornered by Chi-Yun of all people, his blue hair only half-braided (apparently he had heard the news and literally jumped out of bed to find her).

"You're sure?" he asked.

She smiled at him. "Very sure. It took me a long time to decide, but I'm sure."

"It's just... he's not one of us. He's technically a Beylin Temple blader, yes, but he's only been here a few months..."

She laughed. "Chi-Yun, he's not an anemone."

"Don't you mean _an enemy?"_ Chao Xin asked from behind her as he came out of the main building with Da Shan at his side. "Honestly, Mei-Mei."

"You're determined to go through with this?" Da Shan asked. "In love, as in a battle, the slightest hesitation could mean weakness on the side of one or the other."

"I'm determined," she said. "I like him a lot, and he likes me."

Chao Xin looked across at Da Shan. "Well, that's good enough for me," he said, and then walked right up to her and gave her the biggest hug he was capable of. "You're our girl," he murmured in her ear. "We've got your back, no matter what."

He let go and stepped back, and she looked up at the three boys who stood around her, some of the greatest bladers China had ever produced. There were no words for how grateful she was to know that her brothers-in-arms were standing by her through thick and thin.

.

He had never been more excited, except perhaps when he'd first met Gingka Hagane. She'd finally agreed! He was going to do everything he could to prove that he was worthy of her, just as he would do anything to prove that he was a worthy successor to Gingka.

"Just so you know," Chao Xin said, materialising out of nowhere to leaning on the pillar two away from him. "If you hurt her, there will be nowhere you can hide. We have China's four-thousand year old network that will find you in a heartbeat."

"Understood, sir," Sora squeaked, very aware that he had never even managed to win hide-and-seek against the Beylin Temple trainees. "I'd never hurt her." He cleared his throat. "I'd rather hurt Cyber Pegasus than get her into trouble."

"We shall see," said Da Shan's voice from behind him. "Look after her properly, in a way that befits her strength and her determination. Perhaps in the eyes of the world she is just our reserve member, but Mei-Mei is ours, and we are proud to fight alongside so great a warrior. Do not let me down, Sora."

"Yes, sir."

Da Shan's expression softened. "Now, I believe she is waiting for you. Don't come back too late or the gates will be locked."

"I won't, sir!"

At that, Da Shan actually smiled. "I think you can call me by my name now, little brother."

Sora's grin could have outshone the sun. "Yes, sir! I mean, Da Shan."

"Go on," Da Shan laughed. "Get along with you."

Sora almost ran for the gate, only the training he had received over the past months stopping him from bolting over to greet the girl he loved.

"Ready to go?" he asked her.

She smiled back at him, and the world was complete.

* * *

_Okay, this might just be my new favourite person for Mei-Mei to be with. And Sora really __**does**__ look like a little Da Shan!_


	13. Through Doors Made Of Glass

**Day 13**

**Through Doors Made Of Glass**

**(Selen/Damian)**

She watched him through glass doors. He spoke with the master of Hades City, his back turned to her, facing the screens that told the control room everything they needed to know about the status of the city. His white cape barely stirred in the faint breeze from the air conditioning required in a room with so many computers. She couldn't take her eyes off it, like a rabbit staring at a snake.

.

He watched her through glass doors. She and her brother fought as one in the practice dish against the mechanical launchers that had been set up. He was not surprised to seem them victorious. After all, the mechanical launchers were only a challenge for the likes of the hired bladers who defended the outer rings of the city. The battling pair had the machines set on the hardest difficulty, but it was clear who was in control.

It was interesting to watch someone fighting alongside someone else, rather than against them. It was not a technique that was taught in Hades Inc.

.

She watched him through glass doors. No-one but the scientists were allowed to be in the room whilst an Arrangement was going on, but as Doctor Ziggurat was beginning to imply that the Garcias might be suitable for Arrangements themselves, she had wanted to find out exactly what one _was_. She was mildly surprised. She had expected something like a battle, with the blade spinning in the centre of the dish and the blader concentrating on every movement that it made, becoming one with it through listening, feeling, knowing. Instead, she watched him lie back in the strange, electric cradle and shut his eyes as the shield closed over him. She stood there for only five minutes, long enough to see everything, and long enough to see all she wanted.

Later, she would wonder whether her revulsion at the idea of being Arranged was from her family values and determination to succeed without artificial help, or whether it was because of the look on his face when he emerged from the chamber, eyes as blank as liquid gold.

.

He watched her through glass doors. She was the second of the Garcias to be subjected to the tests to see if she would be receptive to an Arrangement. The nurse wrapped a pressure-cuff around her upper arm to check her blood pressure, and she only stared resolutely ahead. He knew the battery of tests as well as anyone, but it was always intriguing to watch them from the other side of the door.

.

She watched him through glass doors. The training facility would never be able to handle his level of power, she knew that, and so the day when he stormed into the communal living area and demanded that Jack battle him was one she had been expecting for a long time. Jack was the only one who could come close to Damian's strength, by always doing the unexpected. Jack's tactics were bizarre, his mind fractured into a kaleidoscope of art that only made sense to him. But when it came down to the _battle_... oh, then all the power was Damian's. So even though she knew what the outcome would be, she watched him, because watching him was like seeing the new world order unfold in front of her eyes.

.

He watched her through glass doors. She had passed the tests, as had Ian. Enzo was still considered too young for the Arrangement to have any real effect, and Argo had failed, to his fury. But being suitable for an Arrangement wasn't related to strength or skill, but to chance. He watched as the scientists helped her to remove most of her outer clothing and attached a number of electrodes to her arms. This was the final check before the system could accept her. Lights were flickering on the console on the far side; mostly green – a good sign, though the heart-rate one was fluctuating between red and orange. She was scared. He couldn't remember if he had been scared before his first time. Maybe he had. The memory was gone now, buried under the knowledge of the power that the Arrangement System could give.

A second scientist led her to the capsule and attached the electrodes to the system once she was lying down. The restraints clipped on easily, and she looked up through the glass roof of the capsule with that arrogant, confident expression he had come to know so well. She was determined to get whatever she could out of this.

He tilted his head to look across at the big screen on the far side of the room, the one displaying the Arrangement Index. As he watched, the numbers flashed into life and began to climb.

Four. Nine. Twelve. Seventeen. Twenty-one.

Oh, she would make a fine addition to Starbreaker's army. Maybe he didn't approve of her methods in the dish, but there was definitely something to be said for a crafty opponent.

Twenty-five. Twenty-seven. Twenty-nine. Thirty-one.

Thirty-three.

Something flashed across her face – discomfort. No, more than that. _Pain._

Thirty-five. Thirty-eight.

One of the lights on the panel flickered, then went out. Next to it, another faded into orange. Something was going wrong.

Forty.

Her face twisted, and he put a hand to his chest. Something in him remembered pain. It understood hers, like a cloud encircling his ribs and crushing them.

Forty-two.

Another light went orange. The scientists flipped a couple of switches and one of them lowered the large handle that controlled the speed of the Arrangement. It didn't help; she moved her head restlessly, as if in a nightmare. Forty-six. Forty-seven. Forty-eight.

She shuddered from head to foot, and without realising he took another step towards the glass doors. Every muscle in her body was tense and taut. More lights changed colour. One of the dials was heading rapidly towards red.

Forty-nine. Fifty. Fifty-one.

Without warning, a spasm rippled down her body, muscles clenching and twisting as they reacted to the Arrangement System. Then again. And again, until she was shaking all over.

Fifty-two. Fifty-three.

And then she screamed. He heard it, even through the capsule hood and the doors he stood behind, as the sound ripped the air apart. The scientists were working frantically, trying to stabilise her heart-beat, her breathing, everything. One of them was talking to Doctor Ziggurat via the internal video, clearly asking for permission to abort.

Fifty-four.

_Keep going,_ Ziggurat said, though he had to lip-read it as the voice didn't pass through the doors. _She's strong. She'll make it._

Fifty-five.

But he didn't think she would. She was thrashing violently now, body bucking against the electrodes and straps that tied her to the System. Her back arched completely away from the base, and bone-deep pain had twisted her face almost unrecognisably. He was so close to the glass now that his breath was beginning to fog it up, and he stopped breathing to keep it clear.

Fifty-six.

She was screaming, fighting the restraints, tears running unconsciously down her face as she fought against the Arrangement. It was killing her, he knew that. Fifty-seven. Fifty-eight. Fifty-nine.

All the lights on the panels suddenly flashed red and a warning klaxon screeched overhead. The head scientist slammed his hand down on the failsafe, instantly stopping the procedure and opening the capsule.

She sat up, shaking, coughing and choking, not even noticing the tears streaming over her cheeks. He frowned. Sixty percent complete. Nowhere near enough to count as a proper Arrangement. Even Zeo had managed better than that on his first time through. He stepped back from the doors, a little disappointed. Perhaps she wasn't as good as he'd hoped.

Behind him, the marks of two hand-prints slowly faded from the glass.

.

She watched him through glass doors. The hospital ward was quiet, a blessing after the white noise that had shrieked through her head as the Arrangement had climbed. He was talking with one of the nurses, though about what she couldn't guess. She lay back on her bed and stared at the ceiling. After the disastrous Arrangement attempt, Ian had been tested more thoroughly and had failed as well. None of the Garcias would be gaining that extra power the easy way.

She sighed. Perhaps she preferred it this way. Hard work and effort had always been the cornerstones of the Garcias' technique, even if distraction and manipulation of the rules were their main game. They still had to be able to _beat_ the opponents they distracted, after all.

For a moment, it felt as if someone was watching her, but when she turned her head, there was no-one there.

.

He watched her through glass doors. She sat on the steps outside the central building, cross-legged, her blade in several pieces in front of her. She lifted each of them carefully and polished them before setting them back down. He didn't leave his post for nearly an hour, observing as she took care of the blade she owned. Whilst her Arrangement may have failed, she still had a deep connection to the bey, though she did not seem capable of unleashing its constellation. Ray-type beys were sometimes more tricky to master; that she was so good with it anyway said much for her talent.

.

She watched him through glass doors. Another Arrangement. After the débâcle of her own one, she was slightly nervous about approaching this area. She could still remember the pain, and the blankness in her mind. It had been the most terrifying experience of her life. But she was drawn to him, brown-skinned moth to the flame of his eyes. Maybe he would burn her into ash. Maybe this was nothing more than the oncoming rush of her own destruction. But by the blade that she bore, she swore that she would go out in glory – and let him see her at her brightest.

.

He watched her through glass doors. She took orders from Ziggurat and obeyed them, but it was clear that she wanted more. She wanted _power_. He recognised that so easily. She and her three brothers had grown up with nothing, always wanting more just to get by on a day to day basis. Now that she had enough, she still wanted more. She wanted the world and everything in it, just like he did. But strangely, he didn't feel like defeating her in order to gain everything, so that he didn't have to share. Unlike her, the child of the slums who had grown up in a tiny corner of Brazil, he knew how big the world that he wanted was. He was wise enough to know that there was enough to share – if it was with the right person. The person who wanted it all just as much as he did.

Not more.

Not less.

Just as he did.

Perhaps at last he had found the one to fight alongside, rather than fight against.

.

She watched him through glass doors, and he looked straight back at her, before beckoning her inside with a single crooked finger. She hit the button on the side of the door and stepped into the wide, white-walled room.

"Doctor Ziggurat wants you at the helicopter pad in fifteen minutes," she said.

"I know." He stood gracefully. "Thank you for bringing the message."

She knew the strength of Spiral Force. The next time she spoke to him, he would be one of the princes of the new world. At least the scraps under the table might be better quality, though.

As she turned to stride away, she was surprised to find him falling into step beside her, matching her pace perfectly.

"Not as servant," he said, eyes fixed straight ahead. "As queen." And, when she looked at him in astonishment, he actually smiled. "Did you think I didn't know you were watching me ever since you arrived?"

She turned her head to look forwards again. "I knew." She hesitated for a second before adding "I knew when you were standing there too."

Their relationship had been born through transparent barriers, but they walked out onto the helipad shoulder to shoulder, the edge of his white cape flickering against her side. The world would burn before them.


	14. Long Gone

_Considering which month this is, you were probably all wondering which pairing I would honour with Valentines. Here's your answer – my first and only OTP._

* * *

**Day 14**

**Long Gone**

**(established Hikaru/Hyoma)**

When she opened her eyes, she was cold.

For a moment, she didn't register why this was so strange. She'd slept outside and in draughty warehouses before. Then she remembered. Oh yes. She was in Hyoma's house, high in the mountains, safely hidden in Koma Village.

But... if she was indoors, why was she so cold?

Hikaru sat up and reached over to the bedside table to light a candle. When the flame flickered into existence, she looked around in confusion. Yes, they were a long way up, but that was no excuse. The house had been pleasantly warm that evening as she, Hyoma, Gingka, Hokuto, Kenta and Madoka had sat around the fire exchanging stories of the past few months. Gingka was leaving for Europe in a few weeks, so they were all spending as much time as possible together. Of course, a single house didn't have enough room for all of them, and so the six of them had drawn lots until Gingka had the camp-bed, Madoka the sofa, Kenta the floor – and herself Hyoma's bed. Hyoma had just grinned at her and fetched the hammock from outside, stringing it up from the rafters and happily settling in for the night.

Something felt wrong.

Instantly, every sense was on high alert. Something was different, and not in a good way. She froze, listening with all her might. That was Gingka, snoring in the next room. The faint snuffling was Hokuto.

That was when she realised that she couldn't hear Hyoma's soft breathing from the hammock above her head.

Quietly, Hikaru slid out from under the covers, wincing as her feet touched the cold floor. A gentle poke to the bottom of the hammock confirmed that it was no longer occupied, to her consternation. Where could he have gone?

It was the cold that told her. Frowning, she pulled her boots and coat on, and slipped out of the bedroom, manoeuvring around the sofa where Madoka was still fast asleep, and trying not to tread on any part of Kenta, who was sprawled close to the embers in the grate. Her guess was proved correct when she reached the door to the outside; it was loose on the latch and kept swinging slightly in the wind.

At first, she couldn't see anything unusual outside either. The open square of the village centre was completely empty, and there was no-one in the front garden either. But she knew something wasn't right.

She found him almost at the edge of the village, bracing himself against a wooden-railed fence that came up to his chest. He wasn't looking her way, and he seemed to be muttering something under his breath.

"Hyoma?"

He startled as if she'd fired a gun behind him, and whirled around, Aries already prepared to launch. She automatically backed up a step, but managed to stop herself from lunging for her own blade by sheer force of will.

Hyoma had never pulled Aries on her before.

"Hyoma, are... are you alright?"

He looked awful. The moon was full, and right overhead, so it did nothing to disguise the shadows under his eyes. Even allowing for the light, though, he was pale, and his fingers on the ripcord shook slightly. "Oh... Hikaru," he sighed. "It's just you."

"Who did you think it would be?"

He slowly unlocked Aries from the launcher and slid the blade back into its holder. "Maybe Gingka," he said, but she could tell he was lying, because his voice was too high.

"Would you have pulled Aries on Gingka too?" she asked, and he couldn't look at her.

The silence stretched between them for the longest time. He was staring at a spot just to the left of her foot, unmoving apart from his shoulders as he breathed.

"Hyoma?" she asked eventually. "Hyoma, talk to me."

"I'm fine," he said, looking at her again and trying to smile. It just made him look even worse. "You should go back to bed. Why are you up, anyway?"

"I woke up and it was cold," she explained, and he groaned.

"I'll fix that latch tomorrow," he muttered to himself. "Stupid thing never sticks properly during the winter."

"Why are _you_ outside? It's even colder out here."

He shrugged uncomfortably. "I needed some air. I'm not used to sleeping in a house with five others."

"So you came out here where it's _absolutely freezing_?"

He half-laughed, and it didn't sound right, it _wasn't_ right because there was no light in his eyes and he was so tense that she was surprised that the wind hadn't shattered him. "I'm used to it." His expression sharpened. "But you're not, so go back to bed before you freeze."

"I'm tougher than I look," she shot back.

"I know," was his only response, and he looked away again.

She stepped forwards until she was next to him, leaning against the fence. Looking up, she could see thousands upon thousands of stars dotted across the sky, overshadowed by the vast white moon. There, so far above her head, was the constant reminder of her power and the strength that could not leave her, no matter whether she held and launched a bey or not. She watched him out of the corner of her eye as he slowly imitated her, the tension beginning to drip from his shoulders.

They stood there for nearly half an hour in silence before Hyoma finally tore his gaze away from the stars and looked across to the forest before closing his eyes tightly.

"Hyoma..." She was going to add something else, but she didn't know where to start.

"I just keep seeing it," he said finally, voice choked. "R-Reiji. The... the way he grinned as Aries shattered. The glint off of those terrible blades he had on his attack ring. The way he _laughed._" He swallowed painfully. "The way he just _wouldn't stop._"

Hikaru felt something painful grip her chest. "Hyoma, he's gone. He can't hurt you any more. It's over now, you..."

Hyoma whirled around, eyes blazing. "Do you think I don't know that?" he snarled. "Do - do you think there is anyone – _anyone_ – in this world who knows that better than me?" His hands clenched themselves into crumpled claws, only just preventing him from digging his nails into his palms. "I'm the one who... who reads his psychiatrist's reports, who checks every week that he's still in the same psychiatry ward of the hospital, the one who _buried_ Poison Serpent in seven pieces in the forest outside Koma Village where no-one but me and Hokuto could ever find them. I _know_ he's gone. But..."

His breath came in great, shuddering gasps, and he turned away from her, wrapping his slender fingers around the top rail of the fence. She stood there, wanting to step forwards and just _help_ him because goodness only knew that he needed something, some_one_ right now. But she couldn't. Her brain was blank of all comforting words or touches, whirling around the single fact that he was there in front of her, he was _hurting_ in front of her and she was his _girlfriend_ so why couldn't she think of some way to help him?

"Go back to bed," Hyoma whispered, head lowered. "I'll come inside in a bit. I just need some air."

"No." She saw the way his shoulders tensed, but in this at least she wouldn't back down. "No, I'm not going anywhere without you."

If he had been anyone else, she would have wondered if he would strike her. But even when he was hurt like this, reacting like a wounded animal, she trusted him. She had always trusted him, even when there was nothing else in the whole world that she could rely on. Hyoma had been there for her every single time that she had woken screaming from facing her Nightmare. And yes, she considered it to have a capital letter because that was its name. It wasn't completely Ryuga, or completely L-Drago, but some unholy combination of the two. It had driven her out of sleep more times than she cared to admit. Even now, she couldn't be in a room with too much purple in it or it would trigger the beginnings of a flashback.

Now it seemed that it was her turn to help _him._

"Hyoma, I'm staying," she said clearly.

"You don't have to," he answered, voice dull. "It's not as if you couldn't find someone else who wasn't this broken. Someone more suitable for you."

Her breath caught in her chest. "No!" she exclaimed. "No, Hyoma. Don't say that."

"You could have been with Kyouya," he pointed out. "Julian would have had you. Tsubasa. Even Gingka."

"No, I couldn't," she whispered. "They don't... they don't understand the Nightmares like you do."

"I wish I didn't," he spat, but the anger wasn't aimed at her. "I wish I'd never even heard of Battle Bladers. I wish none of this had happened."

"None?" she asked softly, catching his eye and holding it.

He let out a long, slow, shuddering breath. "No," he admitted finally. "No, not everything. Just... just all the... the..." He couldn't finish, and just looked at her as if begging her to understand him.

The thing was, she did. He dreamed of Reiji and a blade with fifteen spikes whilst she dreamed of Ryuga and a blade with three dragons, but it really wasn't that different. She knew the strain of fighting the Nightmares that the past produced so easily in sleep. It had nearly destroyed her.

But he'd stayed strong, much stronger than she had. He'd been able to keep protecting his village with his bey, whilst she had only been able to pull Storm Aquario out of its holder in order to save the world. Admittedly, twice.

And all the while, he'd been working alongside her, pale blue hair dancing in the wind and eyes shining with life and freedom. It was his determination to fight through his demons that had inspired her to go back towards the world of blading, even if it was from an office rather than at the side of the dish. He was everything to her.

"You know," she said, and her cheeks were burning. "You know, I really do love you."

He made a strange sound, a sort of choked sob, and her heart broke. Hyoma was strong and tough – he had to be, to beat Gingka for so many years – and he was _not_ a crybaby. But somehow Serpent's poison had not only destroyed his bey but had damaged the very core of his being. He was like frozen steel, strong but cold and as brittle as thin ice.

Suddenly, he turned to her and she automatically opened her arms as he stepped into them, an instinctive embrace that meant everything and somehow more than everything. His fingers clenched against the fabric of her jacket, and she felt the shudder run though him as he drew in breath after ragged breath, fighting to maintain the trembling façade of normality.

"It's okay," she whispered. "You can let go. I'm here."

She wasn't sure if the half-gasp he made was a laugh or a sob, and decided it didn't matter. He buried his face in her shoulder as she pressed her cheek to his hair, not knowing what else to do, what else to say. He'd been strong for so long that she hadn't even _noticed_ that he was reaching his breaking point. Perhaps they were together, but there were still walls that stood in their way.

He turned his head against her shoulder, and she suddenly realised that her coat was damp. He was _crying, _actually crying, and the realisation made her mind screech to a halt. This was _Hyoma._ _Her_ Hyoma. The one she had relied on utterly for the strength to carry on. The one who had declared his intention to face Ryuga whilst _knowing_ what the other man was capable of. The one who had matched both Kyouya and Gingka in battle. The one who had braved everything the world could throw at him to defend his village since the day he was old enough to understand why.

And she couldn't do anything except wrap her arms more firmly around him and try not to cry herself.

"It's hard," she said, because she knew what he felt and knew that the answer of _It'll get better_ was both false and unhelpful right now. Yes, one day they would be healed, but not yet, not whilst their Nightmares dragged them screaming into the dark. He looked up at her, dragging one hand across his eyes to rub the water away, and she took a deep breath. "But I love you. I always will."

His eyes glowed in the moonlight, full of some strange emotion she could give no name to. Then he leaned in, and kissed her.

He tasted of salt, even though his lips were dry and somewhat chapped. She held on to him, winding the fingers of one hand through his hair as he wound one arm around her waist and the other over her shoulders.

The slightest movement of his head and she loosened her grip, dropping her hands and stepping back a little, though not enough to fully break contact. At least he was meeting her eyes properly now.

"I..." He closed his eyes for a second, then looked back at her. "I love you too, Hikaru."

She pressed her forehead to his. "Come back to bed," she said quietly. "I'll stay with you."

He laughed, but the sound was wet and half-choked. "I'm in the hammock," he said. "There isn't room for two."

She bit her lip, knowing what his boundaries – and hers – were. "Then we'll share my bed," she decided. "We've slept together before, haven't we?" At his look of mingled amusement and scandal, she rolled her eyes. "You know what I meant. You and I shared the last time we were all up here, because Kyouya was here too, and he took the hammock."

"I know," he said softly, leaning into her. "That... that would be nice. Just... sleeping."

"Just sleeping," she confirmed, wrapping both her hands around one of his. "Now, shall we go?"

He looked down at their joined hands. "Yes," he sighed, but it was with somewhat more of a smile than before – and he didn't let go.

She kept hold of his hand all the way back to the house, even when shutting the door and latching it firmly closed against the cold. In fact, she didn't let go until she was back in the bedroom, blinking in the candlelight. She took off her coat and boots so that she could slide under the now-cold covers, but he hesitated.

"If you're that bothered, grab your own blankets and curl up in them," she said. "But I'm not letting you sleep alone again – not tonight at any rate."

He shook his head and reached up to grab the end of the blanket that was just trailing down from the hammock. "You think of everything."

"Not _everything,_" she protested half-heartedly as he joined her, pulling his own blankets over himself as she did the same, before dragging the biggest one over both of them. She shivered as she leaned over him to blow the candle out.

But as the light went out, she felt him tense up, his breathing suddenly becoming erratic as the darkness closed in.

"Hyoma," she hissed. "Hyoma, it's alright. You're safe. He can't hurt you any more."

He shuddered and slowly, so slowly forced himself to relax. He tugged his blankets up to his chin and rolled himself right up in them so that there was an additional barrier between the two of them, before turning over so that he was facing away from her.

"Hey," she called. "That wasn't quite the point of being in the same bed."

"Sorry," he muttered. "You shouldn't have to put up with all this."

She smiled sadly. "But I want to. I want _you._"

He rolled onto his back, looking up at the ceiling. She could tell that he didn't have an answer for that. For a long time, they lay there side-by-side, shoulders just touching. Finally, she turned onto her side so that her head would just rest at the top of his shoulder, and the movement made tension wash down him again.

"I'm not going away," she whispered. "I'm right here."

"Oh," he murmured as he relaxed again, half asleep, half smiling. "So you are." His hand reached down under the covers and twined loosely into hers. "So you are."

.

The next morning, the sun was shining brightly, and the birds were singing outside the windows. All evidence of the darkness had passed.

Hikaru sat up. Hyoma was already up, it seemed – the smell of cooking breakfast told her that he'd already been out to the stream to catch some fish. She could hear the faint murmur of familiar voices from the main room, so Gingka and Madoka at least were awake.

It would come back. Hikaru knew that. She had faced her Nightmare more times than she could count, and Hyoma's Nightmare wasn't any less persistent. All they had was the knowledge that the sun would come back again, but during the nights when it seemed like sunrise was an eternity away, sometimes even that wasn't enough.

And for that, they had each other. They might be broken, but they were together. That was all that mattered in the end.

"Hyoma's making breakfast," Hokuto informed her when she eventually arrived in the main room. "You could go and see if he needs some help."

She smiled and nodded, though she knew it was just an excuse. Hokuto could always tell when Hyoma had slept badly.

He was leaning against the worktop, looking out of the window rather absently. "I've already told you, Gingka," he said as she came in. "Another five minutes."

"I appreciate the information, but I'm not Gingka."

He almost jumped, and spun around. "Hikaru!"

"Good morning." She smiled pleasantly at him. "Sleep well?"

"Yes. And you?"

"Fine, thank you."

They could play this routine very well by now. It was their disguise, their veil from the world.

But between the two of them, their veils had fallen. They fought on side by side, back to back against the Darkness in all of its forms, and they would never have to face it alone again.

So she leaned in and kissed him, slow and deep and careful, trying to tell him wordlessly all the things she would only ever say aloud in the dark.

She knew he understood when he kissed her back.


	15. Brightest Stars

**Day 15**

**Brightest Stars  
**

**(established Lera/Yuki)**

"Boys! I told you to be down here five minutes ago! We're leaving!"

"Coming!"

Lera shook her head. No matter how many times she told them that they had to be ready by a certain time, Sirius and Rigel never seemed to be able to stick to it. She'd got into the habit of telling them to be ready at least fifteen minutes before they actually had to leave.

Sirius, brown-haired and the spitting image of his father, came bounding down the stairs ahead of his brother, one shoe still not tied.

"Ah-ah," Lera tutted, pointing. "You're not leaving this house until that's done."

"But it keeps coming undone!" he protested. "It's not fair! Rigel still has velcro!"

"Rigel's younger than you. When he next gets a pair of shoes, he'll have laces," Lera pointed out. "Now, do your shoes up properly. Rigel, go and tell your father that we're leaving. He's out in the garden."

There was a tug at her trouser leg. "Daddy's always late, isn't he?" Saiph asked, looking up at her mother with wide turquoise eyes.

"He gets distracted by his telescope," Lera agreed, ruffling her daughter's brown hair. Of her three children, only Rigel had inherited the bright pink that she had (he was quite proud of it, actually; he though it made him look a bit like Starbreaker's Jack, whom he idolised). "At least I know where your brothers get it from."

"There, all done!" Sirius announced, sticking his foot out to show his mother the birds-nest of a knot he'd made in his laces. It wasn't as bad as it might have been, though, and as they were going to miss it if they left any later, Lera decided to leave it just this once.

"Good. Come on, now. We'll be late."

Just as she was helping Saiph put her coat on, her husband arrived, Rigel riding piggy-back. Lera tutted. "Honestly, Yuki. I told you we had to be ready to leave at seven."

"But Venus was on the horizon," Yuki exclaimed. "I couldn't miss it!"

She squashed down the temptation to roll her eyes. "Of course not. Now, hurry up!"

It wasn't actually that long a journey to the hill that they were heading for, but it always took longer on that particular night, mostly because they had to carry the chairs and telescopes up it as well. Saiph proudly carried the telescope stands, being very careful not to drop them, whilst Sirius had won the brief but loud battle to carry the actual telescopes. Yuki had the chairs, Lera the blankets and Rigel had been landed with the box of binoculars.

To Lera's relief, they reached the flat top of the hill without any major incidents. As soon as they arrived, though, Rigel dropped his box of binoculars and tried to snatch his telescope from Sirius. Unsurprisingly, this didn't go down too well, and Yuki had to step in to confiscate all of the telescopes before one of them got broken, as had happened the year before.

"Settle down, boys," he ordered. "I need some space to set these up. Go and help your mother with the chairs."

Sirius took off immediately, not towards the chairs but towards the nearest tree. The eldest Mizusawa boy had always been one for climbing. Lera snagged Rigel's shoulder before he could follow.

"No," she said sternly. "Help me first, then you can go and play."

"But-"

"But Sirius will have to help put them all away at the end. Come on."

As Rigel unwillingly took one of the deckchairs and started fighting its unwieldy form, Saiph plopped herself down a few feet away, more interested in the tiny flowers in the grass that had already closed for the night than in the show they were here to see.

"Look!" Sirius called suddenly, running back up the hill. "I've got a sword, Mummy! Hah! _En garde!_"

It wasn't a real sword; as usual with Sirius it was just a very large stick. "Be careful," Lera warned him. "Don't hit your brother with it."

"I want a sword!" Rigel piped up, dropping the chair he was meant to be putting up. "Sirius, where'd you find it?"

"Not telling!"

Luckily, just before the two could launch into an argument, Yuki interrupted. "It's nearly time; come on boys. Sirius, put the stick – I mean, sword – down. You can have it later."

But just as the little group were getting settled on their finally-constructed chairs, a bank of clouds swept in from the north and covered the sky.

"Ohhhhh," Rigel whined. "Now we can't see them!"

"This is boring," Sirius announced about five seconds later. "Who wants to watch _clouds?_"

Lera's mind immediately presented her with all her knowledge of the earth's atmospheric phenomena and the way they interacted with weather systems; all things she needed to know in her day-to-day work. But it wasn't the kind of information that would keep the attention of a nine- and seven-year old.

Just as she was about to suggest that they come up with a game whilst they waited to see if the clouds would clear, Yuki interrupted her thought process.

"Actually," he said. "Have you ever tried to see things in clouds?"

Sirius gave him the most supercilious look that a nine-year-old is capable of. "Of course not. And anyway, it's dark, Daddy."

"That doesn't matter," he said. "The light from the town will be enough to see by. The first one to spot a beyblade in the sky wins."

_That_ got their attention. Both Sirius and Rigel were beyblade-mad, which wasn't all that surprising as they had the Legendary Blader of Mercury and a former World Championship competitor for parents. Sirius's prize possession was his Rock Orso, a gift from Uncle Nowaguma for his eighth birthday, and Rigel was counting off the days until his own eighth birthday. Naturally, considering who his idol was, he wanted a Befall.

"Extra points if it's a Pegasus!" Sirius yelled.

Lera smiled at her husband, who gave her a quick glance before moving over to where the boys were now sitting and staring up at the cloudy night sky.

"I've got a dragon with three heads," Rigel said. "Does that count?"

"He said _beyblade,_" Sirius retorted. "I've got a hippopotamus."

"Hmm," Yuki said. "You know, we could make that into a story."

"Don't be silly, Daddy," Rigel laughed. "You can't put a hippopotamus and a dragon in the same story."

"Of course we can." Yuki told him. "The three-headed dragon has stolen the hippopotamus's beyblade, and the hippo has to go and get it back with the help of a - " Here, he pointed at Sirius, who blinked before realising what his father meant him to do. A long look upwards provided the next part of the story.

"A crown with a tail!"

"Very good. With the help of a _magical_ crown with a tail. The tail was important because that was what gave the crown its magical powers, and so the dragon wanted to cut it off..."

The story was long and complicated, and the characters changed as quickly as the clouds. It might have begun with a dragon, but the final protagonist was a shape-shifting rabbit with a grudge against a quill pen with magic powers. By the end, Sirius and Rigel were staring at their father in awe. Saiph, who had ignored the whole thing, had crawled into her mother's lap and was now dozing off, a bunch of closed flowers clenched in her fist.

"And that's how the grass in our garden ended up going brown!" Yuki finished. "Oh – look! The clouds are gone!"

Indeed they were. The stars were out once more, and as the boys tilted their telescopes back to the correct place, tiny flashes of light were beginning to appear; the meteor shower they came to this hilltop every year to watch.

"Thank you for that," Lera murmured, squeezing Yuki's hand as he sat down next to her.

"You spent all your life using above-atmosphere telescopes," he smiled. "I know how to entertain myself when my grounded telescope can't see through clouds."

"Apparently you make up stories about a three-headed dragon, a crown and a hippopotamus."

He seemed to be hiding his grin. "If that's what's there." He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. "Come on. Now that the clouds are gone, we'll be able to see the Leonids properly again."

Lera leaned back in her chair to look up. Maybe this would go on long past the children's bedtime, and maybe they would be cranky tomorrow, but it was worth it. Perhaps it wasn't the most romantic way to spend an evening - taking care of three young children was a full-time job in and of itself - but it was enough for her. It wasn't every day (well, night) that she got to spend several hours watching the tiny points of fire streaking through the night sky with her husband.

After all, it was their wedding anniversary.


	16. To And Fro

_Sorry, a bit late this time. Yes, it's in letter format again. What can I say? I like this format!_

* * *

**Day 16**

**To And Fro**

**(Madoka/Chao Xin)**

Hey Madoka,

Thought I'd write to you to check on how the team is doing after our team-building lessons! Da Shan's got us in extended training for the next few weeks for the Wildcard Tournament so I won't be able to watch any of your battles live. Hope the boys aren't giving you too much grief. Just remember, they can be daft sometimes. Give them time, they'll be fine.

Chao Xin

.

Dear Chao Xin,

I loved getting your letter. Most people nowadays send emails, so getting a real pen-and-paper letter was wonderful. Yes, the boys are behaving (mostly. Tsubasa was muttering about four thousand year old Chinese techniques earlier, but I think that was because he couldn't manage to get his blade in sync with Yuu's). Hope you get into the wildcard place.

Madoka

.

Dear Madoka,

Wow, I wasn't really expecting a response, let alone that fast. Your handwriting's really good.

Of course we'll get that place. Just you wait and see. Then we'll come back for Gan Gan Galaxy and beat all of you! We're going to the top of the world!

Chao Xin.

.

Dear Chao Xin,

This is actually really fun. It must be so strange for you when you're in the tournaments and you've got access to all the WBBA's computer equipment so that you can talk to us over the video links whenever you want. Letter-writing is becoming one of those lost arts of communication.

Talking of communication, I wish the boys would communicate properly. There's something wrong with Tsubasa, but he's not telling us anything. I wish he would; I'm getting worried about him.

Madoka

.

Dear Madoka,

Tsubasa's a strong blader and he's very individual from what I know of him and his style. He'll probably be okay. I say probably because it's not like you to get worried, which means it's something serious.

Just keep an eye on him and make sure he's safe. Chances are he's just working through something. Something like that happened to Da Shan a few years ago, and it took about two months for him to get over it. But he _did_ get over it, with everyone's support. Tsubasa's going to be fine.

Chao Xin.

.

Dear Chao Xin,

Thanks for that. I guess I just worry too much about the boys. They can be so silly at times, but they're so strong that if something went wrong it could be catastrophic.

I've started to look forwards to getting your letters whenever they arrive. The WBBA are posting them all on for me.

Madoka.

_P.S. Congratulations on making the Wildcard! We're going to be calling you this evening, but I'm writing this in the morning so I thought I'd write it anyway._

.

Dear Madoka,

Thanks! Just Excalibur to go now, and then we'll face you.

It was good to see you again. I'm sorry about Tsubasa. Maybe my advice wasn't so good. I hope he'll be better before we have to battle again.

Chao Xin.

.

Dear Chao Xin,

No, it was good advice, but Tsubasa was just a bit too far gone. They're talking about removing him from the team, but I don't think they will because Yuu's threatened to quit if Tsubasa's removed, and then we wouldn't be a valid team.

I'm scared, Chao Xin. What if Tsubasa's been really ill all this time and we just haven't noticed?

Madoka

.

Dear Madoka,

Stay strong. Tsubasa will recover, I promise. I saw what happened to him against Chi-Yun, and we've watched the battle against Demure and Masked Bull (Benkei? Someone said that was his real name) so I know how scary this must be for you. But Tsubasa is a blader and he's tough. He'll pull through. Just believe in him. I don't know exactly what's going on, but I'll be here whenever you need someone to write to. I'll do whatever I can to help.

Chao

.

Dear Chao Xin,

You always give the best advice. Thanks for being there. I know it hasn't been the easiest of times for your team either, what with Excalibur and all.

Gingka's determined to beat them, not just so that we can get to the Finals, but so that he can avenge you. He was quite upset that he wasn't going to be facing Da Shan again, and Masamune was all fired up to face Chi-Yun.

I hope I'll get to see you at the Finals when we get there. I know it's a very long way for your team to come, though, so I won't blame you if you want to stay and train instead. But I can't write everything I want to in a letter and your advice is so much better in person.

Madoka

.

Dear Madoka,

Wow, this has been a bit crazy. It's been ages since I wrote to you.

First, congrats again on Gan Gan Galaxy's win against Starbreaker!

It was wonderful to see you again at the celebration - and to fight alongside you against Hades City and its bladers. Sorry that we had to go back to our Temple so quickly, but Da Shan wanted us to start training for the next World Championships as soon as possible. I was going to come and say goodbye, but you were stuck on the City.

Hope you're getting enough rest in between fixing Pegasus! China's four-thousand-year-old network said that it was really badly damaged in the final battle, and you're the only person Gingka would trust with his blade. You're the only person _I_ would trust with repairing my blade, except our training masters!

Anyway, I'm rambling. Stay safe,

Chao

.

Dear Madoka,

You know, it's odd. I woke up this morning and thought "I wonder what Madoka's doing right now?" I then spent about ten minutes working out the time difference between here and Japan, only to decide that you were probably asleep.

It was strange. I think I miss you - and your ability to yell louder than Da Shan.

Yours, very puzzled,

Chao

.

Dear Chao Xin,

Actually, I wasn't in Japan on the date that was on the postmark. Gan Gan Galaxy were still in America to say goodbye to Masamune and his friends, so I was probably sitting out in the parks with Toby and Zeo, watching Masamune and Gingka battling (Gingka borrowed a spare blade from the Dungeon Gym). They really had a good go at it – there was hardly anything left of the stadium when they were done. Then Yuu and Tsubasa got jealous and teamed up on them, and before I knew what was going on there was a tag-team battle royal in the middle of the park, Masamune-Gingka, Tsubasa-Yuu and Zeo-Toby. The Tsubasa-Yuu team won, but Masamune claims that's because he and Gingka had been battling before then and hadn't relaunched, and Gingka said it was only because he didn't have Pegasus.

Sorry, I didn't mean to bore you. It would be nice to come and visit you again. Perhaps you could ask Da Shan if he'd like to have some kind of training meet-up. I'm sure Gingka would jump at the chance as soon as I've finished with Pegasus.

Madoka

.

Heya,

Sorry I haven't written for so long. Da Shan's new training regime is crazy. It was nice to see you again when you came to ask about the Legendary Bladers. I still can't believe those Beylin Fist bladers got the Star Fragment over Beylin Temple, though.

Hope you're safe. All this Nemesis stuff is starting to get me worried, and it's not like you have a blade to defend yourself. Be careful, okay?

CX

_P.S. You could never bore me._

.

Dear Chao,

Don't worry about it. I guess writing letters kind of takes a back seat during a global crisis.

I'll be fine; I know it looks like I'm following the danger, but I'm in the safest possible place – with the Legendary Bladers. If anyone can stop Nemesis, it's them.

You stay safe too. The evil-doers have the Beylin Fist bladers on their side, though Gingka's doing his best to persuade them otherwise, and if they decide to come and attack the Temple they wouldn't have any problems with it, not with Aguma's Star Fragment.

I hope I'll see you soon.

Madoka

.

Hey Madoka,

Can you help me with something? I'm trying to write a story and I can't work out how it ends. I'd like your input.

CX

.

Dear Chao,

Sure, I can help. What's the story about? I'm not saying I'll be any good at making suggestions, but I might be able to think of something.

Madoka

.

Madoka,

Okay, the story goes something like this:

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess who had four brothers. She loved them a lot even though they were sometimes really silly and annoyed her. Sometimes she had to threaten to take away their weapons so they wouldn't fight each other instead of the other kingdoms around. They were trying to beat all of them so that they could be called the strongest kingdom in the land.

In one of the other kingdoms there lived a handsome prince. He was very popular with the ladies of his country, but he didn't love any of them. Instead, he was in love with the princess, ever since he'd seen her when she and her brothers came on a diplomatic visit to his country. He'd met her many times since then, and they'd even talked a few times. He thought she was kind to her people, funny, sweet and very beautiful. He also thought she was incredibly strong and just a little bit scary when she was cross.

However, he and his family had lost their fights against the princess's brothers even though they tried with all their might. So he didn't think he was worthy of the princess, and didn't really know how to tell her that he liked her and wanted her hand in marriage – or even how to ask her if she liked him in return. After all, her brothers would defend her from any suitors whom they didn't think were suitable, and a defeated enemy – even one who was now allied to their kingdom – wasn't at the top of their list, especially as a big enemy was coming their way and marriage wasn't really on their minds.

Anyway, what I want to know is how the prince should approach the princess. Should he go out and slay a dragon for her and bring her its head to prove his strength? Should he write her a letter telling her how much he loves her? Should he bring her treasures from his family as a gift? Should he battle one-on-one with each of her brothers to win her hand? I figured you'd know what a princess would like best.

Thanks!

Chao Xin

.

Madoka,

Are you alright? I haven't heard from you in ages. I hope you didn't get hurt by all the stuff that happened with Nemesis. I'm worried about you.

Write soon,

CX

.

Chao,

Sorry for the delay. I was just thinking about how your story should end.

I think that the prince should wait until he actually sees the princess and then ask her straight out. Dragons are very rare, and he might get seriously injured fighting one. That would make the princess very sad if she truly loves him back. Same for one-on-one combat. Letters are very romantic, but sometimes what's written can be misunderstood. He should go and find her, and if her brothers protest, then she'll probably tell them off if she wants him. You following me?

Madoka.

_P.S. Terribly flattering as it is, I think a marriage proposal might just freak Gingka and Tsubasa out a bit too much. Maybe just ask if I'll go out with you. I might even say yes._

.

Dearest Madoka,

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you.

I love you.

Chao Xin.

_P.S. You always see right through me. _

.

Dear Chao,

Your letter arrived before you did, so I'm writing this whilst listening to the sound of the princess's brothers and their allies being surprised at the prince and his family arriving. So by the time you get this, you'll know what my answer was.

Love,

(Princess) Madoka


	17. The Time And Place

**Day 17**

**The Time And Place**

**(Selen/Johannes)**

The first time she meets him, he is trespassing on her territory, and she doesn't hesitate to send him packing with his tail between his legs. She is queen of this city, and she alone knows all its tricks and twists. He doesn't stand a chance.

.

The second time she meets him, she is on neutral ground, but she sends him packing anyway. He can't defeat her, especially not when he is as easily distracted by shiny things as the cats that gather around him to stare. Distraction was always her speciality.

.

The third time is across an official dish, in a qualifying round of a local tournament that she and Enzo have entered (the tournament has a cash prize, and she really needs some more shirts because her current one is far too small for her, and Enzo wants chocolate). She acts all innocent, eyes bright and wide and deliberately naïve, and he fall for it, head flicking to the side as she gasps and points over his shoulder. But as she lets the mask fall and aims to flip his blade clear out of the dish, his head flicks back like a snake's and the spin-track extends _once, twice_ - and Ray Gasher slides past without the slightest tap on the other blade. And it isn't cheating, it's cheating within the rules just like _she_ does, just like her brothers do, and it makes her smile. So maybe here is an opponent she might call worthy one day. She is still smiling as he wheels round to attack again, still smiling when he flicks between height-modes faster than the eye can follow, still smiling when the phenomenal power of his golden bey crashes into Ray Gasher and lifts it out of the stadium. She is still smiling, though hiding it because what would Argo say if he saw her smiling at a loss, when the boy who defeated her rises through the ranks and wins the tournament.

.

The fourth time she meets him, she is with Ian. This turns out to be a bad thing, because Ian is determined to wreak revenge for his sister's loss, and once again the boy is on Garcia turf. The battle is messy, and destroys a couple of houses. The battling pair are chased away by a shop-keeper with a broom handle, and in the confusion the other boy vanishes.

.

It is nearly a year before she sees him again. She has almost forgotten him, in fact, and recognises his blade before she recognises him. In the shock, he very nearly beats her, but a gasp and a "Hi, Ian!" aimed over his shoulder makes him jump ten feet in the air and she is the victor. She only feels a little bad about it.

.

After that, she sees glimpses of him around, like the tip of a cat's tail as it whisks around a corner. She is intrigued by this boy, this strange cat-like man who is – at the moment – little more than a dream in the corner of her eyes. She doesn't tell Ian that she's seen him, and when Enzo stumbles home wide-eyed after an encounter with a golden bey that changed heights at will, she volunteers no information. Argo and Ian retreat to the back of the warehouse to discuss where they might trap this new opponent, but she slips out of the front door. They have forgotten him from before. She has not.

"You need to get out of here," she says to the open courtyard about two hundred yards from the Garcias' home. "Argo and Ian will grind your bones to powder if you let them catch you."

"Who says they'll catch me?" asks the shadow behind the barrels.

"I did."

A strange sound, something like a choked purr. "I let you. And your little brother."

"So you say. Not even a grain of dust blows across the road without Ian or Argo knowing about it."

"And yet you're here without them knowing?"

She tosses her head proudly. "You're _my_ opponent," she says fiercely. "No-one else's."

"I beat you," he answers, stepping out of the shadows and lounging against the barrels. "I don't see how that makes you my _opponent._ It just makes you someone I defeated."

She tilts her head to the side. "Well, I beat you three times. You beat me once."

"Mine was the only official one."

"You're in my city, cat-boy. Official means nothing."

He hums, a deep and almost guttural sound that rumbles across the space between them. "We shall see."

.

She begins to see cats out of the corners of her eyes, always following her a safe distance behind. The only one she actually sees properly is a very handsome brown tabby who sits proudly on the boxes outside the Garcias' warehouse hideout and calmly washes his face.

.

They meet by chance in the middle of a busy street, she coming back from the market and he... well, she's not sure about him, but his cats almost _swarm_ her. He claims she must have had some kind of fish in her bag, but none of the Garcias even like seafood – and anyway, he won't meet her eyes.

.

"This is getting ridiculous," she tells the brown tabby three days later. "Is he doing it deliberately?"

The tabby looks at her and then headbutts her, asking for a stroke. She sighs and does so, and the cat purrs happily.

.

She wakes up one night to find the brown tabby and two of his friends on the prowl around the warehouse. In the space of three hours they completely clear the area of rats and mice, and leave with no sign of them having been there. Ian is ecstatic at no longer having to lock food away in a metal bin (it gave apples the weirdest taste), but she isn't going to tell him where all the rodents have gone.

She is surprised the next morning by the brown tabby silently depositing the body of the largest rat she has ever seen in front of her. A gift, the cat seems to say.

.

He is sitting on the edge of a building when she finds him. "Your cats are very well trained," she says, and he laughs.

"They just did what cats do," he answers, and in that single sentence he betrays himself. They didn't clear the warehouse for the sake of being cats. They did it for her.

"Thank you," she tells him. "Maybe this winter we won't have to beg in the streets for food."

"Cats are excellent hot water bottles," he says absently, and lets her sit down next to him. They stay there together for nearly four hours. It's strange, sharing so much of herself – of her city – with someone outside her brothers, but it's nice.

.

The next time she meets him, he gives her a kitten. Argo asks where the creature came from, and she just shrugs and cuddles the tiny scrap of fur to her chest. She knows what it means when her cat-boy gives her a kitten, and she will protect little Tiger with her life.

.

"I've been seeing that cat-boy around a lot," Ian says suddenly one day, and she tenses. "If I didn't know better I'd say he was trying to recruit around here for whatever scheme he's involved with now."

"He's not," she snaps, too loud, too fast. Ian is known as the smart one of the family for a reason.

"You care about him." Ian's voice is quiet, and if she didn't know him so well she would say it was non-judgemental. But she can hear the thoughts in his head, and she knows he doesn't think her cat-boy is suitable for her.

"And your problem with that is?" she snaps. She might as well get this over with before Argo wades in, because she can challenge Ian or Argo alone, but not together.

"You're a Garcia," Ian tells her. "He isn't."

"So?"

"We are a family," says Argo from behind her, and her heart sinks. "We live together, fight together, die together. We trust no-one else, care for no-one else, or else we weaken our chances. Our priorities must always be each other, or we will be compromised in the dish."

She cannot fight them both one-to-two. But she is the master of distraction, and surely she can think of something?

"Have you never seen him fight?" she asks. "He's got the brain of a Garcia even if he doesn't come from here. Rumour has it that he nearly beat Gingka once."

"Rumours mean nothing," Argo snaps. "He is dangerous."

And she looks up at her big brother, and a flood of _something_ overrides her common sense because she asks "Who to?"

.

When they next run across each other, she can't look at him. They are underneath a stadium somewhere (where? It didn't matter. It was just another tournament, and she was tag-teaming with Enzo like always) and her family sweeps past him like a ship in full sail, arrogant and tall because they came here to rule this stadium. She feels his eyes on the back of her head the whole way into the main arena, and the slightest sideways glance tells her that yes, he is watching her.

And yes, he still has a black eye.

.

"My brothers think we shouldn't see each other," she tells him a week later when she finally manages to find him again. He has been sulking, and hiding from her.

"Well, that was obvious," he says bitterly, pointing to the faint bruising around his eye. "And your family always comes first, I know. You're a Garcia."

"I'm a Garcia who sleeps with a kitten on the pillow next to her," she retorts. "My brothers don't get to share my blanket."

There is something implied in that which she isn't sure she really means, but his eyes sparkle like a cat's catching the light from a window in the dark. "You won't leave them, though."

She shakes her head. She likes this boy, she likes him a lot, but he is right when he says that she is still a Garcia. Argo, Ian and Enzo are family.

"I'll persuade them," she says at last. "Whether it takes a month, a year, three years, a decade. If this is right, if this is going to work, then I'm not doing it without them."

"Meow," he laughs. "And there was me hoping that you'd elope."

She smiles, really rather in love with his laugh - though it would take a carthorse to drag _that_ confession out her. "Not yet."

.

She pretends to be feeling ill so that she can sneak away from training to meet him the next time. He is waiting for her at the corner, eyes flicking back and forth nervously – is he really that scared of Argo and Ian? She hides a snort of laughter, because they might be her older brothers, but she's her own woman and she'll make her own mistakes, thank you very much. He smiles when he sees her, and immediately launches into a blow-by-blow account of the battle he had with Bao the day before. She falls into step beside him and listens, because his voice is different to her brothers', and so she pays attention. Plus, she thinks Bao is an attention-seeking brat, and she finds it funny when people she doesn't care about lose.

She doesn't notice the time passing until it is dark and she can barely see him.

"I should go," she tells him, frustrated that the oncoming winter means that daylight is getting shorter and shorter. "My brothers think I'm sick, and they'll have finished training at sundown."

She is about to turn and go when he grabs her hand. There is just enough light shining from a late-closing shop nearby for her to see as he blinks at her once, twice, and then quickly darts in and presses the faintest, lightest peck of a kiss against her cheek.

Then he vanishes into the shadows.

She stands there for a long, silent moment, watching the place that he disappeared, before turning to make her way back to the warehouse alone.

But one of his cats – the brown tabby – follows her home, before fading into the night the moment that he is satisfied the girl his master cares so much about is safe.

Cats protect their own.


	18. The Dragon's Lullaby

**Day 18**

**The Dragon's Lullaby**

**(Hikaru/?)**

When Hikaru had first placed Storm Aquario in the locked box in her bedside cabinet along with her launcher, she had never expected to pick it up again. The dreams were too bad. The flashbacks were too common and far too vivid. Her strength had diminished too much.

So she walked away from the one thing she had always loved, because it was just too painful to keep going. Yes, she'd been able to join Ryo Hagane up in the Director's Office, but that was no real substitute for the excitement of battle.

But then he had stormed into her life like fire after rain, and refused to leave until she'd answered his challenge. It had taken every tiny scrap of bravery that she possessed, but she had caught up her blade and launched it once more, and this time she hadn't put it straight back in its box when the battle was over. She'd stared at it as it lay still on its side, and then picked it up ready to launch again. He had laughed, a glorious, high-flying sound that was nothing like the dreams, nothing like the flashbacks, and she suddenly knew she was safe with him.

He wasn't the man she had feared.

She sat on the ledge outside the cave they were sheltering in, arms wrapped around her knees, staring out across the empty plains. Somewhere out there, Nile and Demure were hunting, walking, training. Actually, probably sleeping.

He slept too, almost peacefully, within the cave. They had walked many miles that day through terrain that a year ago she would have considered impossible, impassable. Now she scrambled down ravines behind him, walked through pitch-black caves hand-in-hand with him, climbed mountains beside him. It was easy with two of them.

Part of her wondered how he'd managed it alone before, and that same part revelled in the knowledge that he _wanted_ her with him, he _wanted_ her to help him and walk with him across the wilderness of the world. Of all the people he could have chosen, it was _her_.

He never called her Hikaru. He called her Treasure, a great and beautiful prize protected by a mighty dragon.

"I loved you the moment I saw you," he had told her, his dragon quietly curling around him. "You were so _bright_. I couldn't look away."

She hadn't known what to say, and so she'd left it. But she knew the truth. Just as he had, she had fallen in love with him across the beydish the first time they had battled. Or maybe the second.

She'd never believed in love-at-first-sight, but she _did_ believe in realisation-at-second-glance. It had all been so easy in the end.

Well, easy for her.

Everyone else had been shocked when she had announced whom she was going to be travelling with. First of all, they were shocked that she was going to be _travelling_; leaving the office and walking tens of miles every day just to follow him. And then they'd been surprised at the identity of her companion. They had expected her to go for Kyouya – the stereotypical bad-boy, the ferocious warrior who prowled alone and refused to let anyone through his impressive barriers. They thought that she would be the one to draw alongside him and challenge him. After all, that was what she had done when they'd fought in the Survival Battle. They'd expected someone as fierce and independent as she was to look for a man who could be tamed by no other.

And yes, Kyouya was nice to look at. In another world, perhaps she could have loved him.

But she had chosen her sleeping dragon, and loved him for his intelligence, his tenacity, his pride, and the way he walked so tall through the world with his eyes like dragonfire and his hair the colour of ash and blood.

And she loved him not because of who he was or what he was, but because she chose him, just as he chose her.

The air was growing cold, so she retreated into the cave, nodding a silent greeting to his dragon-guard as she passed. He was curled up on his side, golden eyes closed against the darkness, strangely ethereal in sleep. Sometimes during nights when she couldn't sleep and sat up and watched him until her eyes closed of their own accord, she fancied she could glimpse a sort of bluish-green light glimmering around him, but decided in the end that it was a figment of her imagination.

He stirred a little as she looked down at him, some fragment of a dream pulling him closer to the surface of waking. He wouldn't wake completely, though, not unless he sensed something was wrong outside. The stars held him safe, asleep in the arms of the slow-circling skies.

She could have remained where she was in that office, life frozen in fear and unable to move on. Perhaps she could have been safe there, eternally hiding from that which had almost killed her. But in the end, whilst she wouldn't have lost anything, she wouldn't have found anything either. Love wasn't a stationary, fixed thing. It moved and flowed and grew like weeds in summer, winding its way around hearts and minds and tangling them together inextricably.

He had taught her to move, to break down the ice with dragonfire, to take a step outside and look up at the stars that watched over her once again. He taught her to launch herself and her blade into the world anew, taught her to run so that she wasn't running _away _from what she feared but towards the future that she wanted, taught her to fly without wings.

She loved him more than she feared the nightmares. That was all that mattered in the end.

Hikaru tugged the blankets over her shoulders and checked once more that Storm Aquario was safely tucked away in her pocket. Then she closed her eyes and fell asleep, tucked up in a cave next to the brother of the man who had almost destroyed her.

For tonight, at least, Omega Dragonis and Aquario would stand guard together over their bladers.


	19. Live Long and Love Longer

**Day 19**

**Live Long And Love Longer**

**(established Mei-Mei/Nile)**

It was today.

"I think you're ready, Mei-Mei," Madoka said, looking satisfied with her handiwork as she tied off the last ribbon. "Shall we go?"

Mei-Mei took a deep breath. Frankly, she _wasn't_ ready. Who was ever ready for their own wedding? But she was a blader of true heart and mind, and she wasn't going to back down from this.

She nodded, and around her the girls she had chosen as her bridesmaids relaxed a little. "If I'm not ready now, I never will be," she said, trying to hide how her voice was shaking. The three girls looked at each other.

"You'll be fine," Hikaru assured her. "You love him. He loves you. This is just a way of saying it publicly, right?"

"I don't like publicly," she muttered, and both Sophie and Madoka laughed.

"Neither does he," Madoka pointed out. "Now, let's go."

Mei-Mei swallowed and stepped over to the door of the tent she had been getting prepared in. This was it. The culmination of everything.

She had never expected to fall in love with someone from another country, let alone one who could have been her opponent in the World Championships had things gone a little differently. She'd been introduced to him almost by accident, when Kyouya had come barging into the Temple looking for Gingka, who had apparently vanished just before they were due to have a battle. Upon discovering that Gingka had not in fact disappeared from the face of the earth and was in fact in Koma Village, Kyouya had stomped off again with Benkei in tow, leaving Nile to explain and apologise.

To her surprise, that had not been the last she had seen of him. A few weeks later, they had run into each other at a local tournament. He had challenged Chao Xin to a very even battle in the final that had ended in Chao Xin's victory as Nile hadn't managed to activate Mystic Zone before Virgo pounced, and afterwards stayed to talk to her as he waited to be called up to receive his second-place prize.

After that, they had stayed in contact, gradually growing closer and closer. Eventually, she had invited him to come and study at Beylin Temple for a while to learn how to fight defensively. In return, he had taken her out across the plains of his homeland to learn how to survive by defending aggressively. She had taught him how to fight in a proper tag-team so that two became one.

He had asked her to marry him so that two would become one.

And the ceremony was today.

It was a small, private affair, conducted in the inner courtyard of Beylin Temple both for privacy and for the beauty of the location. The bride's tent had been erected just outside the main walls, leaving Mei-Mei with a walk no longer than two minutes between this sheltered fabric shell and the rest of her life.

"Mei-Mei?" Sophie asked softly.

"I'm ready," she said firmly. "Let's go."

As she stepped out of the tent and into the outer courtyard, she saw a flash of brown material out of the corner of her eye, and the dark yellow that marked the uniform of the Hundred Schools of Beylin Fist, and none other than Bao came prowling out of the shadows like a wolf.

Instantly, the entire bridal party tensed.

Ever since Gingka and Madoka's wedding had been interrupted by a group of artificially-enhanced bladers with yet another world-domination plan based (apparently) on obtaining Madoka's knowledge of beys, Mei-Mei had been more than a little worried about her own wedding. They still didn't know where these powerful bladers had come from, or whether there were more of them, but she really didn't want to be kidnapped at the altar, as it were. Even if that didn't happen, she didn't want _Madoka_ to be kidnapped either (having your maid-of-honour stolen from the wedding was almost as bad as having it happen to the bride).

Da Shan had been considering asking for volunteers from the Temple to stand guard, at the cost of missing the actual wedding, when Aguma and Bao had stepped forwards to insist that Beylin Fist would protect the outside of the venue. Shocked, Da Shan had agreed before he managed to register that he had just turned over the wedding defences to Beylin Temple's traditional foes. Not that it mattered in the end. Mei-Mei had never felt safer than when she spotted the flare of the fawn-coloured cloaks favoured by the members of Beylin Fist just to the side of the entrance, and heard the whispered _"No problems; go on in,_" in her ear as Bao swept past her, heading for the outer gates.

It really was a mystery how saving the world together built bridges between communities that had spent millennia at war, even if Beylin Temple hadn't been directly involved with the battle against Nemesis. Since the battle with Nemesis, Beylin Fist and Beylin Temple at least treated each other with a form of civility that hadn't existed before.

It was another form of love, she decided. It wasn't really a case of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." In fact, it seemed to be closer to "The enemy of my _friend_ is my enemy." It was certainly one of the most surprising things to come out of the wedding planning.

The thing that shocked her the most though, was just _how many people_ were actually there, as she turned through the inner gate and was faced with an avenue of chairs, every single one of them occupied.

Of course, the members of Gan Gan Galaxy and their friends had insisted on being there. Gingka, grinning broadly, was sitting as close to the front as he could without accidentally joining the wedding party. Beside him, Kenta smiled happily as he turned to look back. On Gingka's other side, Tsubasa had just tugged at Yuu's collar to get him to stand up, and Mei-Mei could just make out Tithi and Yuki beyond the blonde-haired young man. In the row behind stood Team Dungeon, Masamune flanked by his two best friends. Toby's hair was slowly returning to the brown it had been before the Arrangement System had bleached it, meaning that it was currently tipped with silver just as Zeo's was with yellow-gold. Beyond Zeo, Chris stood, a little awkwardly but still with his head held high.

On the other side of the avenue of chairs, a trio of men stood, dressed in suits that probably cost as much as everyone else's clothes combined. She had thought at first that Julian, Wales and Klaus were only coming to be polite, and because Sophie was one of the bridesmaids. But when she'd told Sophie that they didn't have to come if they had better things to do, the other girl had looked shocked.

"What are you talking about, Mei-Mei?" she'd asked. "Excalibur wouldn't miss this for the world."

So it seemed that Excalibur were there to support her and Nile too.

Chao Xin smiled at her from the near end of the avenue, and she spotted the white cloak of Dynamis over his shoulder. The Guardian of Mist Mountain very rarely appeared outside of his mountain any more, but Nile had suggested they send an invitation anyway. To Mei-Mei's shock, Dynamis had appeared the following day, before the invitation had even left China.

"I follow the will of the heavens," was all he had said when asked, and it had taken her until the night before the actual wedding to work out that he actually meant _I kept an eye out, just in case._

Taking up the rest of the seats were all the members of Beylin Temple, even those who had completed its training and gone out into the world. They had all returned to stand present at the wedding of one of their own.

And there was Kyouya, standing in the front row and looking incredibly smart as he glanced sideways at his friend. When Nile had asked him to stand up with him at the wedding, Kyouya had muttered about "foolish traditions" and "lone lions" for about thirty seconds before Nile fixed him with a _look_ and Kyouya had just grinned.

Of course, Benkei and Demure were there, standing just behind their team-mates. She'd discovered that it was almost impossible to have one of Wild Fang without the others. They were bound together like brothers, a kind of unbreakable love holding them together through thick and thin, through fire and storm and the end of the world.

Then again, her team were the same. Maybe she wasn't marrying them, maybe she wasn't related by blood to any of them, but they were still her family.

Chao Xin, who had sat up with her for five nights in a row going over the words and vows in the service so that she wouldn't make a mistake on the day.

Chi-Yun, who had shown remarkable flair for organisation and had managed to sort out the venue, the invitations, the music, the decorations and the refreshments on his own. Okay, with some help from Sophie. But still.

Da Shan, who had not only sought to protect the wedding (and therefore the happiness) of his only female team-mate, but had offered to lead the service himself. There was no-one she would rather have, and Nile agreed that he was certainly the wisest choice.

She thanked any divine being that might be listening that they had accepted Nile as her choice. More than that; they'd all but adopted him. Da Shan in particular was very fond of the slender, stern, Egyptian man, and considered him to be an extra brother.

Gan Gan Galaxy, Excalibur, the Temple bladers, Wild Fang, Wang Hu Zhong, the Legendary Bladers and their friends, even Bao and the bladers from the Beylin Fist. All of them loved her and Nile in their own way. They were all here, all for them, because they were bladers, rivals, friends.

But none of them loved her quite the way that Nile loved her, and she didn't love any of them quite the way that she loved him.

That was why he was the one standing at the far end of the avenue – _so short, so short that walk that seemed to take forever - _ with a smile on his face that could have lit up the sun as he watched his bride come towards him. That was why he was the one that she would wake up next to tomorrow and for the rest of their lives. That was why, even though there had been barriers of language, culture, training style, even personality between them, he was the only one she would ever and could ever want to give herself to completely, and in return accept his equal gift of himself.

That was why he was the one she was marrying.


	20. Albatross

**Day 20**

**Albatross**

**(Sophie/?)**

The problem with being the richest and prettiest girl in Europe wasn't the chance of kidnapping for ransom (she had bodyguards). It wasn't even that the expectations of her were as high as the sky.

It was that, when it came down to it, she had too much choice. Specifically, too many boys.

Okay, she didn't exactly have queues of suitors, but there were certainly a lot more than she needed. She didn't even like very many of them. But she had been brought up to be polite, and so she put up with the matchmaking attempts from either his or her set of parents, her sister, _his_ sisters if he had them, misinformed tabloid writers, slightly more well-meaning but equally misinformed press agents... well, you can get the picture.

She wasn't sure _why_ she didn't like them, and it wasn't until she was nearly sixteen that she realised that it was probably because she didn't know what she _would_ like. So, one night, after a carefully orchestrated dance set where she took enormous pains to dance with everyone once and nobody twice, she started the list.

It wasn't much of a list, actually. Every girl she had ever been friendly enough with to ask had one. _What are your ideal qualities in a husband?_

Well, she wasn't thinking about husbands, technically, because husbands were people organised by other people _for_ her before she had managed to make enough of a name for herself out in the world that news coverage of her tended to focus on _her_ and not the family she came from.

_What are your ideal qualities in a boyfriend?_

And actually, she wasn't thinking about boyfriends either, because she had a _lot_ of boy-friends. Julian had sworn to defend her honour from anything that might hurt her, and had already threatened three tabloid papers on her behalf when she asked (he had a lot of leverage with them, it appeared). Wales had grinned, and offered his family fortune to bail her out of anything she felt like getting herself into and she had laughed helplessly because honestly, Wales, she didn't need a criminal record, but if he was going to be in the cell with her then she'd do it all anyway. And Klaus (poor, dear Klaus with three brothers and no sisters) had sat with her on the sofa for three hours when her grandmother died and cried for her because she was so cold inside that all her tears had frozen. And then he'd made her brioche because he knew it was her favourite even though he denied all knowledge of the recipe afterwards. _I only make sourdough,_ he'd insisted. _Brioche? What is this flimsy French nonsense? _But he'd not quite met her eyes, and she'd loved him all the more for it.

So she had her ideal bunch of boy-friends.

_What are your ideal qualities in a partner?_

Much better. _Partner_ implied equality, someone she could move separately from but never without. Someone on the other end of the seesaw, because those things were only fun if the two sides could actually balance each other.

So. The list.

_One – He should have a nice smile._

Or rather, he should have a nice smile that he gave to everyone else, and a beautiful, secret smile that only those closest to him ever saw. She knew it was greedy, but she wanted a smile that was just hers.

_Two – He mustn't be intimidated by money, snobbery or general rich-European-upper-class-ness._

This was very important. If he ran away from her wealth or her family then there was nothing she could do because it came with the territory with her. Yes of _course_ she'd give up being rich for love, because that was what happened in love stories, but she couldn't give up her family, and her family had a reputation for a reason.

_Three – He should know how to ballroom dance, or at least manage a sensible waltz._

She couldn't imagine marrying someone who couldn't do that. She went to so many balls and dinner dances that a partner who couldn't dance would be unthinkable.

_Four – He should be a blader._

No-one but a blader could understand the connection to her blade. It was at least half of herself, and someday someone would have to understand that when she said _he is my other half_ she meant _he shares my heart with Cetus_.

_Five – He should be a bit taller than her. _

After that, her list degenerated into things like _Trusting, Loyal, Honest, Patient, Kind, Good, Gentle, Brave; _but she quickly realised that no matter where she looked she'd never find someone _that_ perfect. She grinned to herself suddenly and wrote down _Not Perfect,_ because if he _was_ perfect then that would terrify and intimidate her in equal amounts.

.

She wasn't even thinking about The List the first time she met him. He just sort of drifted into her life like a leaf blowing down the street and catching in her hair.

The first few times, he downright terrified her. She knew what evil looked like – or she'd thought she knew. After that day, she was certain, and was also certain that she knew what _pain_ and _terror_ looked like.

He had been so scared.

When she faced him across the dish with Wales at her side, Konzern's Twin Jewels protecting their leader from the Darkness, she had wondered what he was thinking. At first she'd assumed that he'd allowed the Darkness to take control in order to amplify his already impressive power, but there was something drifting almost unconscious at the back of his eyes, something still fighting to get out, to hold on, as the Darkness choked it to death.

But he'd grown on her, slowly and steadily as they ran into each other maybe once every two months, and when her heart had jumped into her mouth when Julian mentioned that he'd invited him over to stay for a few weeks, mostly to discuss the business of the Konzern family business backing the WBBA for another big tournament now that the Nemesis Crisis was over, she knew that he was beginning to mean something to her.

Fortunately – or perhaps unfortunately – for her, her team of boy-friends were more than capable of noticing 'their' girl's newfound timidity around a certain young man when he arrived, and had _immediately_ swung into action. It was almost terrifying seeing how quickly Julian organised a concert requiring himself on piano, Klaus on violin and Wales on cello – but not Sophie on viola. (Piano quartets had been one of their party pieces ever since the team had first been formed, but they'd never performed a piano _trio_ before). Sophie was both frustrated and rather impressed at her friends' determination to create situations where the two of them would end up spending considerable amounts of time together. At first it was orchestrated, and intensely awkward, but before the end of the visit, it was voluntary on both sides.

He understood subtlety very well. Julian, Wales and Klaus had fixed him with a single, unified glare over breakfast one morning, and the young man had nodded quietly, acknowledging the silent threat. That was all that was said about the subject (well, 'said' might have been stretching it a little).

Later, when he had returned to Japan and she held his first letter to her in her hand, there was a brief argument over when the actual _date_ had been, because there were seventy euros riding on the answer. Wales won both argument and bet.

.

As a matter of fact, she didn't remember her List until it was nearly five years after she had first met him. She was packing her suitcase for her annual trip over to Japan for the Super Summer Tournament – long-distance relationships were so much easier when one of the couple had access to a private jet – when she caught sight of the corner of a notebook hiding under a stack of ancient magazines.

She really needed to tidy her room more often.

Hooking the book out from under the stack, thankfully without toppling the whole lot onto the floor and into her suitcase, she flicked the first page open just to see whether it was worth keeping around.

And there, right at the top, was written _Ideal qualities I am looking for in a partner._

Oh. _That_ was what this was.

She almost laughed. She couldn't really remember what she'd written on that list, but she was fairly certain that the nearly-sixteen-year-old version of her hadn't understood what love actually was. Despite her protests to the contrary, she'd still thought it was princes and white horses, first kisses and happily-ever-afters, when the reality was long weeks without seeing him, impossible hours at which to video-call him because of his job and the time difference, and a lot of hard work.

Would her fifteen-year-old self have let him pass?

_One – He should have a nice smile for everyone and a beautiful one just for me._

He didn't smile much, though it was beautiful whenever she saw it. But it wasn't just for her – he gave it freely if it was deserved. But that was alright. That was him, and she wanted him to shine in front of everyone, because he deserved all the attention that he got.

_Two – He mustn't be intimidated by money_

He didn't. He actually didn't care one fig for where she came from. He walked into her house exactly the same way he walked into stadiums packed with thousands of fans, and the same way he walked into the grocery shop. He quietly dominated every room he entered just with the gentle force of his presence and silence. She'd seen him stride into a boardroom full of the governing body of the WBBA, all of them arguing over the latest health and safety regulations, and seen all of them fall silent when his confidence rolled over them, letting him take over the discussion and solve it in less than half the time it was threatening to take. He might not have a fortune of his own, but he had such a wealth of talent that she didn't care.

_Three – He should know how to ballroom dance, or at least manage a sensible waltz._

And he _couldn't._ He really couldn't. Oh, he was graceful, and had a good memory for the steps, but he could never fully relax into the dance when they were at a social function, and so it was more like dragging him across the floor than dancing.

But he was always the first one to grin when her favourite song came on the radio, and was perfectly at ease spinning her around the kitchen to the beat of whatever it was (Tchaikovsky, Holst, Dvorák, Williams, Shore, Zimmer, Powell, Enya, Hisaishi, Queen, Teng, Lambert – she had an eclectic taste) because it wasn't the beat that mattered but the music and the song and the dance _slow slow quick quick slow_.

_Four – He should be a blader._

Well, this at least he managed. Alright, it wasn't his primary focus – he merely used it as a tool to get the information he needed for his job as special agent and eventually Director of the WBBA. But he knew how the constellation link worked, and that was the important part. Part of his heart would always belong to the stars, just as hers did.

And she wasn't going to ever say _he is my other half _when it would always be more accurate to say _he is all of me and I am all of him_, because he quietly held her close and told her time and again until she finally believed it that she was so much more than just the man on her arm and the clothes on her back, no matter what the tabloids tried to say.

_Five – He should be a bit taller than her._

Well, he was a littler taller than she was, but all things considered, that was a bit cosmetic because she could wear heels. Or he could? She still liked to dabble in fashion every now and then, and she'd been the designer behind the minor comeback in men's platform boots three years ago. She still had a soft spot for them. She knew him well, and he would probably be up for it if she was the one to suggest it, because he'd taught her long ago that if an idea sounded stupid it should at least be tried once just to find out. _Strike the bell and bide the danger,_ he liked to quote from one of his favourite books.

And the rest?

_Six: Trusting. Loyal. Honest. Patient. Kind. Good. Gentle. Brave._

Long ago she had scribbled all of them out because no-one could be that perfect. And it wasn't until now that she realised that it was all of his imperfections that made him honest about them. He trusted because he relied on her as much as she did on him, and she would not betray him because he would not betray her. He was loyal because his pride had once driven him to forsake his friends and he knew the consequences. His occasional flashes of arrogance or anger were softened by his strength of spirit. It was the shadows of his past that sprang up in nightmares that made him kind and gentle, and his crippling fear of darkness that made him brave when he walked home with her after nightfall, before heading off to his own house in the dark.

He wasn't perfect. But he was perfect for her.

So she scribbled out _Not Perfect_ and wrote another line in its place.

_._

_Seven - His hair should be the colour of the stars, and his name is Tsubasa._

_._

* * *

The quote is taken from _The Magician's Nephew,_ by C.S. Lewis. Full quote at the top of my profile.

If you feel like helping to name some of these pairings, I've asked the lovely people on the Shipping List forum if they'll give me a hand too. AlbatrossShipping is my personal name for this ship, but I also quite like SeaBirdShipping...


	21. In Darkness Buried Deep

**Day 21**

**In Darkness Buried Deep**

**(Hikaru/Kyouya)**

Hikaru loved her job as Ryo's assistant. Yes, she dearly wished that she could go back to blading, but it was fun being behind the scenes and watching everything from afar. Helping out with the administration of the World Championships had promised to be the greatest thing she had ever been involved in.

Until _he_ happened.

Oh, she didn't really blame him. After all, she knew how powerful Ryuga was. There was no way that Tsubasa could have really won against him. But to realise that the Darkness had utterly corrupted the beautiful silver-haired man... that had been an awful day. It just got worse and worse as Tsubasa's control was eroded by the Darkness that was swallowing him whole until he even turned on his tag-team partner and friend.

It had made the World Championships one long string of terror, never knowing when the Darkness would crack through those golden eyes and come shrieking out into the full light of day, dimming the sun and tearing the earth apart with its strength – and her mind apart with memories.

He had got better eventually, and no-one had been happier than she had to see the _real_ Tsubasa step up to fight at long last. But even that hadn't been the end of it. Even as she walked down the corridors of the stadium, looking for Gan Gan Galaxy so that she could give them the most recent updates from the hospital before the final battle, Tsubasa and Yuu were lying unconscious, missing the Championship they had fought so hard to reach.

Reaching the right floor, she opened the door to the team room, expecting to find at least Madoka there, if not the rest of them.

Instead, she came face to face with her worst nightmare.

He was even taller than she remembered, his white coat bulking his silhouette out until he was a terrifying wall of power that made her whole body freeze up. Her fingers clenched instinctively around the door handle as her mind shrieked at her body to _run,_ to _get out of there,_ to _move!_

She managed to step back and turn away, but she hadn't even taken two steps when -

"You. Girl."

His voice sent shudders up and down her spine.

"Come back here."

Every instinct she had was screaming at her to run, to get away from this man, this _thing_ which had destroyed her will to blade. But his voice was utterly compelling. Just as it had once ordered her own destruction, now it ordered her to turn.

She compromised, keeping her body still and only turning her head. He was still standing in the doorway, golden eyes fixed on her. She felt like the rabbit before the snake, except that this snake was a dragon.

"L-Drago knows you," he said finally. "L-Drago knows you, but I do not."

She stayed silent. Not that she had much choice; her mouth was completely dry.

"So we must have fought at Battle Bladers," he continued. "Yet I remember the other opponents. You aren't Kyouya. You aren't Tsubasa. You certainly aren't Gingka. Who are you?"

With every scrap of courage she could find, she swallowed. "I was your first opponent. You destroyed me in one hit in the first round."

His eyes seemed to flicker red for a moment, then faded back to gold. "L-Drago says you faced him... me... us without running. He commended your bravery, and then destroyed you as quickly as possible." Again his eyes burned. "_Ah._ _Hello_, _Hikaru._"

Her blood ran cold. That was not Ryuga speaking.

"Hikaru?" Ryo's voice had never been more welcome. "Hikaru? The team's just gone that way, they..."

For a long moment, there was complete silence in the corridor. Then, as Ryo stepped forwards to stand in front of Hikaru like a shield, Ryuga whirled on the spot and slammed the door behind him as he returned to the room she had found him in.

Ryo immediately put an arm over Hikaru's shoulders, noticing how badly she was shaking. "It's okay, it's okay," he said quietly as he led her into one of the empty team-rooms. "He's gone, you don't have to worry about him." He found one of the blankets that were stored in the cupboard for bladers who fell unconscious in battle and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Hikaru? Say something."

"Why was he even _there?_" she whispered, huddling into the warmth of the blanket. "I thought he left straight after the end of his match."

"The officials had to examine L-Drago," Ryo explained apologetically. "Every blade is examined to make sure that it's tournament-legal, and because he came in late he didn't have it examined at the beginning. If he hadn't surrendered his blade, the victory would have been discounted." He wouldn't look at her. "It's the rules. I'm sorry."

"L-Drago spoke to me," she said, staring at the floor. "He spoke through Ryuga. I didn't know constellations could do that."

Ryo froze. "Neither did I," he said slowly. "Hikaru, I'm..." He stopped and looked away for a horrible, silent minute. "There's something strange going on here. First, you try to launch your beyblade just after you get out of hospital and almost immediately shriek and call it back to your hand and never pick it up again. Then Tsubasa starts to act erratically and then completely loses control. Now a constellation starts to use his blader as a mouthpiece and speaks to another – _recognises_ another blader. You said that Ryuga didn't recognise you but L-Drago did?"

She nodded. "He must have been taken over when he fought me and we didn't even realise."

Ryo looked stern. "L-Drago is one of the strangest creatures I have ever come across, and the Darkness that possessed him is clearly more of a threat than we thought. It definitely affected Ryuga – we all saw that. It almost destroyed Tsubasa from the inside out. And you..."

"It stopped me from blading," she said. "The moment... the moment I launched that first time, I-I saw it behind my eyes. It wanted me t-to attack Kenta." She tugged the blanket closer. "So I ran. I ran and never looked back."

_How can I blade when I can't trust my own reasons for doing it?_

"We can't get to Tsubasa right now," Ryo said grimly. "We need to talk to Kyouya. I'll put out some contacts, see if we can find him. He can't be that hard; if we found Ryuga all that time ago when we needed to examine L-Drago, we should be able to spot Kyouya no problem."

.

As it turned out, tracking Kyouya down was downright _impossible._ It wasn't until the green-haired blader miraculously appeared outside Hades City that anyone managed to get a lock on his position, and by that point most of them were preoccupied with getting onto the swiftly-rising flying city. But after the brilliant light of Pegasus had scattered the power of Spiral Force across the stars and then descended back to the earth cracked and worn, Ryo and Hikaru finally succeeded in cornering the elusive Leone blader.

"So you think that the dark power is in me and Hikaru as well?" Kyouya asked, folding his arms and looking more than a little irritated. "The dark power Ryuga had?"

"Yes," Ryo said. "You just need to take a couple of tests at the hospital, the same as the ones they did for Tsubasa, and then we'll know for sure."

Kyouya shook his head. "Don't bother."

Ryo looked shocked. "What do you mean, Kyouya? We need to do these tests, so that if the Darkness _has_ infected you, we can work on dealing with it now that Tsubasa has managed to master it. We can't risk another powerful blader going out of control."

Again, the green-haired man shook his head, strands of hair flying everywhere. "And I said you don't need to bother. I can tell you right now – yes, the dark power caught me."

A stunned silence met his words, and Hikaru stared at him in horror. "You _knew_?" she asked, aghast. "But... that battle against Gingka? Or against Tsubasa? You could have gone out of control any time and the damage could have been catastrophic! Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because I didn't have to," he said calmly, fixing his eyes on her. She tried to hold his gaze, but it was too intense and she settled for watching Ryo over his shoulder. "I knew the second that I launched Leone in training that something was wrong. So I found out how far I could go before the reaction would start to trigger, and then locked that part of my strength away. That's why I had to train so hard for the World Championships. I'd lost a bit of my power to the Darkness, sealed it away within Leone so that not even I could retrieve it, even if I wanted to. I want to defeat Gingka, but I won't do it using borrowed, chaotic power. I will beat him on my own terms."

There was a long pause, and then Ryo nodded slowly. "I've seen how much power you put into your battles against Gingka and Tsubasa in particular," he said. "I know you're a blader of honour who wouldn't lie about something like this. So I'll believe you. But – and you _must_ listen to this – if you lose control of the Darkness, you must tell us at once. I won't have something that dangerous being unleashed."

Kyouya seemed to be appraising the older man. "I told you," he said eventually. "I can't access that corrupted part of my power. But if it gets unlocked, I know how to defeat it now."

And with that, he turned and walked away, back straight and head held high.

"And there goes the lone lion," Ryo sighed. "Come on, Hikaru. Let's go and get Gingka and the others." He strolled off, not even looking back.

Hikaru, however, hesitated. After all, this was an opportunity she might never have again.

She had had a crush on green-haired Kyouya ever since she had first battled him. It certainly helped that he was the most handsome man she had ever set eyes on, but that wasn't why she loved him, not really. He was absolutely wild, like storm-winds shrieking over the towering waves, and she loved how utterly determined he was to defeat all those who stood in his way. She had never managed to bring herself to say anything about it, of course – first of all there was Battle Bladers and collecting all the points for that, and then -

Well, then Ryuga had happened.

But that was in the past. Kyouya was already on the far side of the open area in front of the Spiral Core tower, and in a second he would vanish into the maze of streets that led to the edge and the waiting boats.

"Wait, Kyouya!"

She didn't expect it to work. After all, Kyouya was renowned for his lack of respect for orders. But to her surprise he stopped walking and turned, letting her catch up.

She had run away from blading, in case it had changed her beyond recognition. She would not run away from this.

"Kyouya, can... can I talk to you for a moment?" The moment that the words left her mouth, she panicked. What was she doing? Yes, she didn't want to back down, but what on earth had made her think that Kyouya would like her in return even if she managed to admit everything?

"Go on." He folded his arms, scowling at her. "I have no intention of staying here longer than I have to."

"This is going to sound so silly," she said, knowing that if she stopped now she would never say anything at all. "But... I've loved you ever since we first battled. I... I was wondering if... if..."

Her nerve failed her at the last, pinned under that clear blue stare.

"You... you love me?" He sounded almost confused. "I don't understand."

She swallowed. "I... I think you're handsome and honest and powerful and... and an excellent blader that I want to get to know better. I like you a lot. I've liked you for a very long time."

"Oh."

That single syllable told her everything she needed to know. It hadn't worked. He didn't reciprocate her feelings.

He looked at her, _really_ looked at her, and she struggled to hold his gaze against the wave of disappointment and utter heartbreak inside her. "Hikaru, you are a fine blader and one of the bravest people I have ever met. But I... I can't love you."

"What do you mean, _can't_?" she whispered. She couldn't speak any louder.

"I have to defeat Gingka," he said, and he was still holding her eyes so she knew he was telling the absolute truth. "I have thought of nothing else for months. I have trained in places that would have killed me if I hadn't been as strong as I am. I have put everything on the line for the chance to beat Pegasus, and I still would. You..." He hesitated for a second, then continued "You deserve someone better than me. Someone who will care for you above everything else. I can't do that. Not until I beat Gingka. Until then, you are of no use to me as a tool to gain what I desire and therefore you would be dropped as soon as possible. That's the way I work, the only way I have ever known."

"So you're saying no," she confirmed, dropping her eyes. She shouldn't have expected anything else. Not from Kyouya, the wild Lion who walked alone through the wilderness and allowed no-one to touch him.

He was silent for such a long time that she thought he might not have heard her, but when she looked up he was still staring at her with that terrible, intense expression.

"No," he said at last. "I think I'm saying _not yet._"

_._

* * *

_I know a lot of you will have been waiting for Ryuga to show up. After all, he's a fan-favourite when it comes to pairings. _

_But I don't ship him with anyone at all, and least of all Hikaru. Under certain circumstances I'll ship unrequited Hikaru/Ryuga pre-Battle Bladers, but that's it. This fic shows why. Ryuga is _dangerous_. He cannot and must not be underestimated. He cannot and must not be trusted. He cannot and must not be tamed into a life of domesticity. Otherwise he is no longer Ryuga._

_Kyouya is another difficult one, hence the unrequited nature of this fic. Kyouya has a single point of focus – Gingka, Pegasus and defeating the pair of them. Outside of that he doesn't care about anything. He refused to _helpsave the world_ because he couldn't see how it was going to help him get another battle with Gingka. Kyouya may be sexiness personified, but he's also completely unromantic, at least right now. _

_On another note, some advanced notice. After this story is over, I will only be updating very, very sporadically until mid-May. I have many, many ideas forming in my head for all my stories and for some new ones, but 1) I'm in my final year of university and I need a good mark and 2) I need to rest after this because it's exhausting writing this much every day._

_I will come back, and I will update a couple of stories in between now and then. But there will be no schedule, no regular updates. _


	22. Sonnet

_Okay, even** I** don't understand this pairing... and yes, these are both Shakespearean sonnets: three quatrains, fourteen lines, iambic pentameter, "ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG" rhyme scheme, the lot. Told you I was an English Lit student._

_Plus, this is a challenge, so why not try some different styles of writing as I go along?_

* * *

**Day 22**

**Sonnet**

**(Selen/Masamune)**

**Masamune**

At school, we're doing sonnets (not again).  
Our teacher told us that we had to write  
One to our loved ones – I picked you, Selen,  
Although I know that rhyme is not quite right.  
A month we've been together, since the day  
We fought not as a fight, but more to flirt.  
We understood each other through our blades -  
And then I felt afraid when you were hurt.  
I never thought that I would love the one  
Who cheated in a battle, and who lied,  
Who stole the battle that I should have won  
Who stole my strength, my passion and my pride.  
But – here's the bit that gets me – the worst part  
Is, after all of that, you stole my heart.

.

**Selen**

A heart cannot buy bread, or shield from rain  
And so to say I stole it isn't true  
I only steal the things which ease the pain  
Of hunger, thirst, of fingers turning blue.  
However, Masamune, I admit  
Your heart was not a trade-good, but a prize  
I took it little bit by little bit  
Exchanged it for the passion in your eyes  
And for the way you never let me down  
For that's a prize that money cannot buy  
In any city, village, market town.  
(And yeah, I never liked that Shakespeare guy  
But still, your poem's sweet, and so are you  
And so I wrote a sonnet for you too)

.

(P.S.  
_They say all's fair in love and war_  
_I never understood before_  
_How sonnets say what I cannot_  
_That yes, I like you, quite a lot_  
_But Masamune, think of this_  
_Next time, just give me a kiss)_


	23. Fifty Nine

_Love is a perilous and wonderful thing... but it comes with a price._

* * *

**Day 23**

**Fifty Nine**

**(established ?/Toby)**

Dear Toby,

Today I wrote you the last letter you'll ever get from me. It's not very long, I'm afraid. We've had a lifetime to say things to each other, so there wasn't much left. It might not even be very interesting to you, but it was important.

I'm reading it to you now. I hope you can hear me. Of course, whilst it's the last letter you'll ever get, I'm sure it's not the last letter I'll ever write to you. Habits aren't easily broken.

Hiro and Alex are on the flight from America right now, and Hiro said they'll be here by midnight tonight. Don't worry, I know what you're thinking. The grandchildren are staying with a friend of Alex's, and they send all their love. I think you'd agree that they should remember Granddad as you were when we went to visit them at Christmas, happy and healthy and teaching Tom how to do trick flips off of the side of the dish in the back garden.

My grandmother used to say that it's the silly things you remember. I remember our wedding day. Not the vows, though they are more true in this moment than they ever will be again. Not the talk that Ryo Hagane did. I just remember how you took my hand to put the ring on it, and your hands were shaking. Not enough for anyone else to notice. Just me.

I don't remember very much about the next four years, except the way that you liked to eat grapefruit with a knife and fork, for some reason. What a silly thing to think of! My head knows that those four years were so much more than that, but that's the only thing I can recall.

But I do remember your face when you held Hiro in your arms for the first time. I remember because it was the same expression on your face when you sat in the front seats at his and Alex's wedding, and on the day that you first met our grandchildren.

And I remember, a long time ago, the first time that you went into hospital when your sickness came back, you asked Alex to sing to you – to sing you to sleep, if you weren't going to make it back the next time.

The doctors say it's just a matter of time now. Your mind and body have pretty much shut down, and only the machines are keeping you alive. But you won't feel anything. No pain. No struggle. They've made sure you're comfortable. It's all they can do now.

But I wanted to do one more thing for you. So, just in case Alex is delayed, I'll sing for you instead, as soon as I've finished reading this letter. I know my voice is pretty scratchy, but you've loved music for so much of your life that it doesn't seem right to send you on your way without it. I don't need to tell you which song.

I've been staring at this piece of paper for nearly an hour since finishing that last paragraph, and I haven't managed to think of something else to say. Perhaps it's because I'm talking to you, not with you.

There's only a couple more things I even _want_ to say, and none of them translate very well into words. But I think you already know that.

So thank you for mornings that smelled of slightly burned coffee. Thank you for never throwing out that coat. Thank you for fifty-nine wonderful years.

They weren't the best years of my life.

They were my life.

So just let go. You can sleep now. I am here, and I wish you only the best.

Goodnight, sweetheart.

All my love,

Your Madoka


	24. Only What It's Made Of

_Yes, this is set at the same dinner as Chapter 3. When else were they going to meet? He's the Guardian of Mist Mountain and she's a Russian astronaut!_

* * *

**Day 24**

**Only What It's Made Of**

**(Lera/Dynamis)**

"Dynamis! Oh, it's so good to see you again!" Madoka's exclamation was the first that anyone knew of the Guardian's presence in the hall. "I was sure that the invitation would never get to you in time."

"I follow the will of the heavens," the tall young man smiled. "It was right that I was meant to be here tonight."

Lera, who had been talking to Madoka with Aleksei just before the brown-haired girl had spotted Dynamis entering, stepped back to get out of the way of the blonde cannonball that shot past her.

"Dynamis! Tithi!" Yuu's yell brought more heads around to spot the lilac- and pink-haired newcomers. "I missed you! Tithi, come on, there's so much food, but hurry up or Ben-ben and Gingky will eat it all!"

If Lera had been expecting anything intelligible to come out of the tiny pink-haired blader's mouth, she was sadly mistaken. Upon spotting his first real friend, Tithi launched into a tirade of sound that only Libra could really have matched. Maybe that was why Yuu seemed to be able to understand it.

Madoka just shook her head and gently ushered the two chattering boys away towards an unsuspecting Kyouya. "That was... loud."

Dynamis looked amused, as much as one of his stature could. "Tithi has not found someone who responds to his chatter in some time. I'm afraid that my Temple tends to be a rather quiet place for him." He looked around. "You are Lera and Aleksei. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Aleksei took this unexpected knowledge in his stride – he'd met Dynamis before, Lera remembered. Perhaps he'd mentioned Lera then, which would explain why the stranger (to her, anyway) knew her name.

"Aleksei, you said you had your new visualisation program with you?" Madoka asked, turning back to the original conversation. "Could you show me?"

"Sure," Lera's team-mate agreed. "Come with me. Lera, I'll be back in a minute – hold my drink for me?"

Lera automatically took the glass and waved away Madoka's hurried apologies. She knew that half the reason Aleksei had agreed to come instead of overseeing a number of centrifugal force experiments being done back in Russia at that very second was because Madoka had asked him for the software.

However, she hadn't quite realised that it would leave her standing next to one of the strangest men she had ever met. She couldn't quite keep her eyes off him and his curious smile that seemed to see right through her.

Anyway, she thought, what kind of man in this day and age believed that the sky had some kind of effect on your destiny? It was ridiculous.

"You are staring at me, Lera. May I ask why?" His voice was cool and soft, the voice of a storyteller. She flushed at being caught.

"I just don't understand why you say that you follow 'the will of the heavens'," she said. "The stars don't actually control anything. They're huge balls of flaming gas burning billions of miles away, and we don't even see their light until centuries after they've burned out."

He smiled that infuriating smile of his. "Perhaps. Yet that is not what a star _is,_ but only what it is made of."

She felt a shiver run through her. Despite everything, there was something about his words that she couldn't deny. She had to admit that she'd always known there was something special about the stars – it was one of the reasons why she wanted to study them for the rest of her life.

"You have a star in your blade, do you not?" he asked. "A constellation?"

"I have a Scorpion blade, if that's what you mean."

"And it contains a fragment of the original star that fell to earth. You lent that to Gingka a year ago to defeat Nemesis. The stars have power."

"Yes, but that's _different..."_

Just then, there was a mild commotion as Aguma and Klaus stomped past them, heading outside.

"What on earth...?" Lera asked, distracted. "Since when did those two talk?"

Dynamis just laughed. "I believe that we would be better off not finding out just yet," he suggested. "I have a feeling it involves a Plan."

She scowled. "You said that as if there was a capital letter."

"There was. Which is why I intend to stay as far away as possible. Aguma is not known as one of the strongest Legendary Bladers for nothing, and Klaus didn't get his own reputation freely either."

"True..." She just realised that she'd agreed with him on something and frowned. "So you really think that distant lights can foretell the future?"

"Not _foretell_, exactly. I believe they merely show a way to walk, rather than forcing our hands – or our feet – to follow. When Gingka first came to me for guidance, I did not know whether it was right to walk alongside him and lend him my power, for I did not know his heart. I only knew that my task was to prevent the power of the Star Fragment from falling into the hands of evil. The Swan, Cygnus, helped me to do so, protecting the children of the stars as she has always done."

Lera was struggling. Part of her knew that stars were just as she had described – fires burning so very, very far away that it took centuries for the light to reach earth. But the part of her that was a blader knew the power in her bey, and knew of its connection with the constellation that guided it.

_Not what a star is, but only what it is made of..._

"It wasn't even that big a fish," she heard Yuu say as he wandered past them, heading towards the drinks table with Tithi in tow. "But then Ben-ben stood up and the boat started going all wobbly so Yo-yo yelled at him."

"You should come and visit the Temple some time," Dynamis said, dragging her attention back to him. "I think you have been watching your stars so closely that you forget to step back and truly _see_ them for what they are – perhaps they do not guide your steps, but they watch over you."

She stared at him silently, momentarily speechless. He had read her mind, he must have. To her surprise, the rest of the hall fell silent at the same time. The moment stretched uncomfortably.

"And that's when Yo-yo fell off the boat!"

The laughter that rippled around the hall might have broken the tension in the silence, but there was still something prickling between Lera and the tall man she was talking to. "Why would you want me on your mountain? I'm just a girl."

He looked confused. "_Just_ a girl? What do you mean?"

She shrugged and looked away. "Do you think I haven't noticed that there's only five girls here and over thirty guys – and that's a _high_ ratio when you consider how many girls are on the international circuit?" She looked around. "Madoka's a mechanic. Hikaru's retired. Mei-Mei's the sub. Sophie always fight tag-team. And I never even managed to get a single battle in at the World Championships – and I don't even _want_ to be a blader."

"But I told you before," Dynamis said softly. "That is not what you are, but only what you are made of."

She looked up at him and saw the wisdom and the kindness in his eyes. Most bladers would have insisted that blading could be her only love – and it _wasn't._ But he hadn't assumed that of her. He'd seen that for her, it was just a means to her ultimate dream.

She might have used blades to get to where she was, but her heart lay in the vast outer reaches of space. She didn't want to have fame gained by winning battles in beystadiums around the world. She wanted fame from touching the stars themselves.

She wanted to be an astronaut.

"Tell me about your stars," he said suddenly. "If you love them as much as I think you do, then I don't believe that you and I are all that different. The heavens guide my path, but they set you on yours."

She looked up at him, suddenly confident in a way that she hadn't been before. Here was a man – and a blader – that she could trust with everything that she was. "If you'll tell me about yours," she said, smiling.

His eyes shone like the stars he spoke of. "I don't have to. Come to Mist Mountain one day, and I will _show_ you."

"I... I think I'd like that."

Stars were giant spheres of nuclear fusion blazing billions of miles away. But they were also tiny, perfect diamonds in a pitch black sky, diamonds that had caught her heart and mind more firmly than any earth gem could have.

And they were the core power-source of the blade in her pocket – and his.

Maybe the two of them could work together after all.


	25. Drifting Without An Anchor

___I read a beautiful, beautiful fic (admittedly, in another fandom) which made me stop and think very seriously about what I consider to be love. This is a written response to that (okay, a written explosion – this wrote itself). There is no real resolution, because this was written for real life, where things aren't perfect, and can't be changed by back-spacing a paragraph and starting again. __  
_

_It's written a lot for me, and a lot for other people I know in this fandom and so many others who think that because 'their' characters are so perfect they can never find a human being that is right for them. _

_And it is written for anyone who has ever been downright confused by what the world describes as love, because if true love exists then why are there so many divorces?_

* * *

**Day 25**

**Drifting Without An Anchor**

**(Mei-Mei)**

They always said to _guard your heart, only give it to the right person._ But she was a wide-eyed romantic, and surely love wasn't that dangerous? Love dragged clever girls like her out of poverty and sat them down beside the princes, right? Love doled out pretty dresses and wonderful, swooping, soaring songs and love let people live happily ever after.

So she was almost _delighted_ when she realised that she had a crush on someone. Okay, he was older than her. And technically he wasn't really real, because every little girl got crushes on the storybook characters and that wasn't dangerous, because it was safe to have a crush on someone who wasn't real. You could never go too far, you could never lose something that you couldn't get back, you could never get heart-broken or dumped or abandoned...

It took her years to get over her first crush. Years. She only told her very best friend his name, but her other friends worked it out because she talked. A lot. They were kind enough to only laugh at her once. Maybe twice, if they were arguing. Most of them had crushes too. Celebrity, mostly - Julian Konzern was high up the list, as was Wales because he was beautiful and his _eyes,_ girl, his _eyes!_ Theirs were like hers – someone they could never touch, but desperately wished they could.

But slowly, she learnt. A crush on someone who could never respond was just as dangerous as a crush on someone who didn't care about her heart. It was too easy to make him _perfect,_ to make him just right for her so that she always came out on top, so that she never had to face the moment when her love actually disagreed with her because lovers always fitted together perfectly, right? They 'harmonised', they were 'two halves of the same whole', they were on a perfect wavelength.

And then she fell out of love and into love almost in the same day. Gone was the childish crush, gone were the posters and the celebrity gossip because someone like that would never look at _her,_ except maybe across the dish.

In its place was something far more terrible. This time, her affections had attached her to a real person, someone she spent a lot of time with. His hair was dark and his eyes were darker, and he was smart and funny and goodness, the other girls liked him enough! Wasn't she allowed to have a chance?

Calm, she told herself. No, he didn't just look at you and your face didn't go bright red because he told you that you pronounced that word wrong again because it really wasn't her _fault,_ it was _his _for distracting her again didn't he know how handsome he was?

She made him a cake for his birthday, and gave him a hug. He blinked, and sort of hugged her back, but most of it was confusion. He smiled at her a bit more, though, and he taught her a new attack when Da Shan was busy training Chi Yun.

Her heart fluttered whenever he met her eyes.

She loved the sensations. It made her feel alive. It gave her just one more reason to be happy that she was alive- _he is alive, I will see him today._ She tried to avoid staring at him for too long in places where someone might catch her, but she always sat so that she could glance up if she wanted. He was beautiful, and she let her imagination run away with her.

.

The years passed, and she watched her friends in their groups, chattering about their boyfriends or girlfriends, and she smiled and thought about _him,_ because even though it sort of hurt, tugging at an old shame like that, he was the closest she had ever come to really loving someone. And he had been gentle when he let her down (sort of. She'd run up to him in the rain and poured out her heart because that was what happened in the movies before the kiss that would make her insides explode with joy and he'd just given her a sad sort of look and whispered _I'm sorry, I just never thought of you like that, Mei-Mei._ And the other girls she was with at the time had rallied round in fury, even the ones he'd been flirting with an hour before, and shielded her and her poor, broken heart all the way back to the dormitories.) and so she didn't really hate him for it. They'd forgiven each other slowly over the years and she still had the necklace he'd given her for her birthday. Still wore it sometimes. He'd been a good friend. Still was. She did now understand why Da Shan had been so insistent that there should be no relationships between the members of Beylin Temple until they graduated from the training school, though.

And now it is the present and she's in her final year of training before she can step outside the gates because she never really had it in her to be a trainer (oh, she loves information and she loves blading and she loves the little kids that come in so full of fire and laughter and determination, but it's not where her heart lies) and there's only six months to go before she has to make a decision. She can't stay with the team, with her friends, because they're splitting up. Da Shan is going to America to study, Chi Yun wants to go into advanced training that she can't decide if she wants or not because blading is awesome but she wants to see the _world_ and Chao Xin... Chao Xin is going back to live with his family.

And she's scared. She's scared because the stories always said that _you know when it's the right person_ but she's never known anything for certain and she's always just _drifted_ without any clear idea of where she's going, flickering from one life-plan to another like a candle in a draught.

How can she face that world which tells her every day that she is defined by what she wears, what she eats and what she looks like when the only person she has to treasure her body for exactly as it appears is _her?_

How long can she ignore the adverts that push and shove to sell her sex because that is the commodity that the richest end of the world runs on when she's heading out of her teens fast and she's never even been _kissed?_

And she's scared, because if she _does_ find him, whoever he might be, what is he going to think of her? She's not exactly in a 'girly' sport, she knows that. She's good at what she does, and she's right up there with the boys, but what if he's intimidated by how strong she is? Isn't the point of love that he will come riding in on a white horse and sweep her off her feet? At least, that's what the stories said. What if he can't?

Sometimes she comes across girls, women, who tell her "You don't need a man to validate you! You're fine on your own, a strong woman like you doesn't need to be tied behind a man!" But she _wants_ a partner. She _wants_ to find someone who will reciprocate her feelings. Someone who will guard her heart as she guards his, with her life.

And no-one really tells her, for the longest time, that it's fine to _want_ a partner. It's _good_ to want one, a person to love and cherish and share the world and everything in it with. The problems come when she starts feeling like she _needs _one.

She focuses on blading, on training, on all the things that will kick-start a career in whatever she chooses. And every now and then she lets her eyes flick over the newest trainees, wondering when one of them will be _him._ In her head she knows he never would be there. He'd be where she least expected him. All she can do is trust that somehow, everything is going to turn out fine. But this is real life, and real life isn't like the movies.

So she hides behind veils of behaviour, pretending that she's fine, and waits for the day they will fall and she can let someone see _all_ that she is.

And perhaps, in the falling veils, she will find out just who _she_ can be.

* * *

_This was a weird chapter to write, because it is incredibly, intensely personal. It also is the first and only one which looks at romance from the perspective of someone who has tried and does not succeed in any way. I'm not saying that romance is dead. It's just that it might be a long way off yet, and sometimes patience isn't the easiest thing to have.  
_

_This was originally meant to be the last chapter, but I moved it when I decided I didn't want this fic to end on such a low note. _


	26. Older and Wiser

_Short, because this is not a pair I'm fond of, and AU, as I haven't seen Shogun Steel but I know who the bad guys are. So Alternate Timeline from the end of Fury._

* * *

**Day 26**

**Older and Wiser**

**(Selen/King)**

They both knew when they met that they were young – probably too young. At the time, they didn't think they were foolish, but in the years to come both of them would look back and laugh at the antics and convictions of their younger selves.

They drifted together fraction by fraction with Masamune as their meeting point, for Masamune was determined to keep the Garcias on his radar and King was equally determined to stick with his best friend for as long as possible. So they invariably ended up running into each other.

Eventually, they started doing it deliberately.

Soon after that, they decided they might as well make it official, however strange their respective friends and families would find it.

They grew up together, grew stronger together. It was a strange partnership that they had, but everyone who knew them said that King had become calmer since knowing her – and she had become nicer, whatever that meant. Whatever it was, it was considered to be a Good Thing by most, and just something that King took in his stride. After all, he'd always seen the woman behind the eyes of the street-wise girl.

Of course, it wasn't just by the presence of the other that the two had changed. Some of it had been education; King had been training with her for months to improve her strength and defence so that she didn't have to spend the whole battle running away. He also tried to teach her not to run away in the first place, though that was less successful.

Which was why he was standing in the crowd with his heart in his mouth, watching her battle an opponent stronger than any she had faced before. He couldn't help her any more. She was on her own

She had only one chance against an opponent this strong. When she was young and foolish, she had used her bey for her own ends, just like King had. She hadn't understood the true bey-spirit.

Now it was the only thing that could save her.

If King had believed in anything other than his own bey and the power of friendship, he would have been praying. As it was, he could only watch with his hands clenched into fists at his sides, the nails digging into his palms as the two blades collided head on, their special attacks making dirt explode up from the dusty, open-air dish and obscure the beys.

"_I can't see who won..._" the DJ called, leaning over his podium. "_Wait, the dust is clearing a bit... yes – I don't believe it ! The winner is our very own Selen Garcia!"_

"YES!"

The yell made everyone swing around, just in time to see the famed King, owner of the Mars bey, vaulting over the barrier and running towards the dark-haired girl who stood speechless at the side of the dish, her opponent's blade lying still between her feet.

Most of the bladers who had significant others tended to keep their love-lives away from the spotlight, because they didn't want the newspapers prying into them. But King was _proud_ of the girl he loved, and he wanted the whole world to know that _he_ was the man she'd chosen.

"You did it, Selen! I told you you didn't have to distract the opponent to win!"

"I-" She was cut off as he barrelled into her, arms thrown around her in the biggest bear-hug he could manage. "Ooof! Oh... hello, King."

For a long moment, she remained frozen in his arms. Then all of a sudden she relaxed and hugged him back, clearly as proud of herself as he was. She tucked her chin over his shoulder, and though strands of her hair ended up in his mouth, he didn't care one bit. This was the girl he adored with all his heart, and she had just won the National Championship of South America all on her own.

"I will love you until the day I die," he whispered, happier in that split second with her in his arms than he could have thought possible. All he wanted was for that moment to freeze forever, and for the feelings he could barely keep inside to remain forever the same.

.

When he was older and wiser, he knew he was wrong. Oh, he loved her until the day he died, and she loved him in return. But it wasn't the love he felt in that moment. Their love, true love, was not a static thing that clung to the same sensations for all time. It was fluid, moving, ever-changing until it was completely unrecognisable from the passion he had felt that shining day.

Sometimes it was a hug from behind, her arms around his waist, or his around hers.

Sometimes it was a napkin folded into the shape of a beyblade (he never managed to get her to teach him how to do that).

Sometimes it was having the dinner cooking when she got back.

Sometimes it was a kiss.

Sometimes it was more.

Sometimes it was the children.

Sometimes it was just her, and him, and everything else in the world just fell away.

But it was always love. And it always would be.


	27. With Lives And Hands Entwined

_I was asked if I was going to do another chapter at the dinner, and this one worked! So let's go and find out how Aguma and Klaus' battle went on, shall we? Consider this to follow directly from the beginning of Chapter 24._

_(Sorry for the delay. FF went down a little before I was ready to post, and it was very late/early by British time so I didn't have the energy to stay awake and wait for an undetermined length of time for the server to come back – I have lectures to go to, after all. Hence the (effectively) double post today!)_

* * *

**Day 27**

**With Lives and Hands Entwined**

**(Madoka/Aleksei)**

As pleased as she was to see Dynamis, Madoka had other things on her mind than the Guardian of Mist Mountain. "Aleksei, you said you had your new visualisation program with you?" she asked, turning to him. "Could you show me?"

He smiled at her, and one of the butterflies in her stomach fluttered gently. "Sure," he said. "Come with me. Lera, I'll be back in a minute – hold my drink for me?"

The pink haired girl looked momentarily surprised, but reached out to take the proffered glass. "I'm sorry," Madoka started to say, realising that she would be abandoning Lera with Dynamis, whom she was not sure had ever been introduced to Lera, but the other girl just waved her away.

"Go on," she said. "I know Aleksei's dying to show you that update he came up with."

Madoka gave her a sheepish grin and then darted after Aleksei, who was heading for the cloakroom .

"It's just in my coat pocket," he explained. "I wasn't sure if you were going to remember it..."

She stared at him – well, at the back of his head, as he was still walking in front of her. "Of course I remembered. You told me about it the first time we met."

The second she had said it, she felt a bolt of dread run through her. What on earth was he going to think of her, that she remembered a throw-away comment from more than two years ago?

"Oh, I did, didn't I?"

She blinked. What? Okay, that was a little strange.

"Sorry, I'd forgotten," he continued as he led her into the much quieter cloakroom. "Anyway, it should help streamline the visualisation on your computer so that you can find all the inner damage much more quickly." He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small memory stick. "Here. Just post it back to me or something when you're done."

She smiled at him, trying not to let her face give away how happy she was to be able to talk to him again. "Oh, it's fine. I've got my computer with me – I can transfer the files now and set it all up when I get home." She turned the memory stick over in her fingers. "I can't thank you enough for this, Aleksei. You get to do such amazing things. I'm just in awe of all the stuff you know.

To her surprise, Aleksei smiled and ducked his head, apparently unable to meet her eyes. "Thank you," he said. "But _I'm_ the one in awe of _your_ talent. You do wonderful work with all those beys. I could never do it. Oh, I can launch and I can run calculations, but knowing when to fix something with resin and when to fix it with a screw? I'd never manage it. I think you're amazing."

She didn't quite know what to say to that, so she just looked away, fighting a blush. She had to stay professional here. He was her _friend,_ that was all.

_BOOM!_

"What was that?"

Both Madoka and Aleksei ran for the window that looked out on the gardens of the large house where the dinner was being held. To their astonishment, two figures stood out there, their stances instantly recognisable.

"Is that... are people beybattling out there?" Aleksei asked, confusion echoing in his voice.

"You'd think Gingka and Kyouya could manage _one_ week without a battle," Madoka replied grumpily. "I told them they had to stay away for at least that long because I didn't want to – hang on, that's not Gingka."

It wasn't. Both of the figures were far more heavy-set than the owner of Pegasus, and a closer look quickly identified them as Aguma and Klaus.

"What on earth are they up to?" Madoka wondered aloud, though it was quite obvious that the two were halfway through a fairly intense battle.

"We should go and find out," Aleksei muttered, already heading for the door. Bemused (but also rather _a-_mused) Madoka followed him.

The two had barely opened the main doors when:

"Kronos!"

"Capricorn!"

With instincts honed by months watching Kyouya and Gingka battle, Madoka threw her arms up in front of her face, shielding it from the storm that raged in front of her. Aleksei was less lucky.

It was clear that Aguma and Klaus had been battling for some time, judging by the deep ruts in the ground where the beys had driven into the earth in their attacks. Scythe Kronos and Grand Capricorn spun steadily between their owners, neither one clearly at an advantage.

"Scythe Kronos is a Stamina type," Madoka said automatically. "In a drawn out battle, he'd have the advantage."

"But Grand Capricorn has both strong defence and attack power, and incredible spin speed," Aleksei continued. Madoka was impressed. She hadn't realised that Aleksei was that good at recognising bey-types from sight, and in the dark, at that.

"Yes," she said. "But Scythe Kronos is still very dangerous. Remember, Aguma is the Legendary Blader of Saturn, and he's a member of Beylin Fist. They've been training for years."

"True..." Aleksei moved a step closer to her very suddenly as Grand Capricorn suddenly shuddered and the enormous goat that was its constellation's form sprang up from the centre of the bey. "I'll never get over the way they do – what's _that?_"

'That', as it turned out, was Kronos. The skeletal figure loomed over the garden, its gigantic scythe sweeping back over its shoulder in a manner that might have been described as "casual" by anyone who didn't know just how dangerous the ancient God of Time could be with his favoured weapon.

Aguma opened his mouth to order an attack, but Klaus got there just before him. "_Claw of the Storm, Third!_"

But even as the massive red goat gathered its strength to charge at the towering figure of Kronos, Madoka saw Aguma's eyes flash to red. "Special Move! _Great Ring Of Destruction!_"

In the confined space of the garden, the ring of whirling winds was devastating. Klaus' eyes went very wide as he battled to hold his ground against the oncoming storm, only to slip backwards inch by inch, foot by foot until with a sharp _bang_, his blade rocketed out of the area and smashed into the wall.

Aguma held up a hand and Scythe Kronos darted back to it. "There," he said. "I think that settles it."

"Except that now we have to go and tell them," Klaus replied. Madoka frowned.

"I have absolutely no idea what they're talking about," she began, and then stopped. In the silence she stood there, almost speechless, her heart pounding against her ribs as Klaus retrieved his blade and the two young men walked back inside shoulder-to-shoulder.

"Aleksei," she said finally, softly. "Um... why are you holding my hand?"

The boy jumped and let go of her hand like it was a poisonous snake. "Oh! Oh, I'm so sorry, Madoka, I didn't realise, I -"

"I wasn't complaining," she said, and then realised that _yes_ those words had just been spoken aloud.

Aleksei stared at her. "You... you don't mind?" he asked incredulously. "But..."

For a breathless moment, they stood facing each other in silence. Then Aleksei said, so softly that his words were nearly carried away by the wind "Madoka, I just wanted to say... I know now isn;t really the best time, but... I... I really like you."

How her mouth didn't fall open in abject astonishment she would never know. As it was, she only just managed to screw up all her courage and admit, hoarse-voiced and shivering slightly: "I... I think I like you too." At his expression, she quickly reconsidered. "I _know_ I like you. I like you a lot."

He had never looked more handsome to her than when he smiled at that moment, and she fell in love with him all over again. "Oh," was all that he said. But he did take her hand again and twined his fingers through hers, apparently fascinated by it.

"We... we should go back to the hall," she said hesitantly after a long silence. "The Director will want to give the end-of-evening speech soon."

"Yes," he agreed, but it seemed to be fairly absent-minded. "I... yes."

Something was a little bit _off_ about his expression, and Madoka was immediately concerned. "What is it, Aleksei?"

He pointed across the lawn to where a pair of figures were seated on the edge of the pond, completely absorbed in the other. "Is that...?"

Madoka looked, then smiled broadly. "Hyoma and Hikaru? Yes. It was a bit of a surprise to us too."

"Oh. Okay." His hand momentarily tightened in hers. "Do you think they'll be surprised about... I mean... um... about – er, us?"

She shrugged, suddenly realising that she was blushing. "Maybe?"

"No, we won't be surprised at all," said Tsubasa from behind her. "We've known since the train."

Madoka didn't quite manage to let go of Aleksei's hand as she spun around, heart hammering at the sudden intrusion, and so he stumbled into her, forcing him to grab her around the shoulders so that he didn't fall. Tsubasa was clearly hiding a smile as he looked down at the two who were now apparently clinging to each other in terror.

"You've known since the _train_?" Madoka spluttered. Tsubasa laughed.

"It was more than a little obvious, even to _me_ – and I was distracted at the time. Now get back inside – the Director's waiting to do one last speech and then we can all go to bed." He rolled his eyes, though it was barely visible in the dark, and raised his voice. "Hikaru! Hyoma! If you're not back in the hall in thirty seconds I'll tell the Director where you are."

"Sorry!" came the shout from over by the pond. "Coming!"

"Let's go," Aleksei suggested, taking her hand properly again.

In the hall, Lera and Dynamis were deep in conversation. Closer to the door, a very smug-looking Aguma and Klaus were watching a blue-haired girl in a pale yellow summer dress and a red-haired boy in a brown cloak lean close to each other, apparently not realising that they were maintaining eye-contact for a little longer than was typically considered normal. Madoka couldn't help smiling.

Perhaps this was a commemorative dinner for an event which, whilst they succeeded, had caused an incredible amount of damage to the rest of the world, damage that was nowhere near fixed. Perhaps it would do nothing but remind them that, now the WBBA had given so much money to help with the rebuilding, there would be no high-level tournaments for years. Perhaps it would just bring back bad memories only just buried.

But it was also a place for new friendships to begin, for old loves to find each other, for new loves to slowly begin to grow.

She twisted her fingers in between Aleksei's, and smiled when he looked at her. Yes, everything was going to be just fine.


	28. The First and Last Time

_Okay, first things first: this is LONG. Second things second: it jumps time quite a bit. Big gaps mean a timeskip._

* * *

**Day 28**

**The First and Last Time**

**(Sophie/Julian)**

Sophie knew something was wrong the moment that she walked into her front room and found Julian and his parents there, as well as both of her own parents. "What's going on?" she asked, freezing in the doorway.

"Ah, Sophie, there you are," her father said in a horribly casual voice that did nothing to assuage her fears. "Do come and sit down."

She was never told to sit down in her own house unless it was a 'family meeting'. And a 'family meeting' with Julian there couldn't be good by any standards.

"Sophie, we have a very important thing to discuss with you," her mother said, beaming. "Mr Konzern has approached your father and asked that you accept his son's hand in marriage!"

One glance at Julian told Sophie that the blonde-haired Italian hadn't been informed of this plan either. "What?" she gasped. "N-no! Julian's my _team-mate,_ I can't marry him!"

"Father! Why was I not informed of this?" Julian asked, jumping to his feet and facing his father. "I knew you were arranging something for me, but to _Sophie?_"

Both sets of parents fixed their offspring with fierce glares. "Sophie," her father said sternly, "You are the heir to our family name and fortune, and Master Konzern is the same. This would be an ideal match to bring together our families and hopefully expand both of our businesses."

"But _daddy!_"

"Sophie! Listen to your father." Her mother folded her arms. "You are both of marriageable age now, and we have been attempting to organise a suitable match for you for many years. You won't get a better offer than this, and it will certainly strengthen both our name and our brand if it is coupled to the Konzern family."

"Father, this is a bad idea," Julian was saying. "I... I can't marry a team-mate... a _friend_. It will end in flames and both our names being dragged through the mud."

His father gave him a stern look. "I expect you to both anticipate that threat and neutralise it. You are my son, and that is what the Konzerns do. We will need this marriage to cement our place in France as a centre of commerce."

Julian looked utterly conflicted. "I..." he began, apparently trying to come up with an argument that would persuade his father. Then his shoulders sank as his quick mind made short work of all the possible options that his parents would allow. "Yes, father."

Sophie was a little slower to realise exactly why her parents had chosen Julian as her future marriage partner. When the shock of the announcement had passed, it all made a horrible sort of sense. Of course. Julian was the oldest child of his family, just as she was the eldest of hers. In the recession, business deals needed some sort of surety to rest on, and a marriage would do that for _both_ families right now.

Julian looked across at her, his expression pained but resigned. He knew what she was thinking.

She didn't love him. In fact, it had been less than a month before that he, Wales and Klaus had been teasing her about staring at a certain red-haired member of the Hundred Schools of Beylin Fist. And she was fairly certain that Julian himself had at least one eye on a young woman who was rising up the European ranks very quickly and looked to be a formidable opponent in a few years.

_At least we actually know each other..._

She was her parent's daughter, and he was his parent's son – and he was a Konzern. Neither of them could back down from a challenge, not even one as life-changing as this.

They would just have to make the best of it that they could.

"Alright," she said, trying desperately to hide her true expression, and her father beamed.

"Perfect!" he smiled. "We'll make the announcement immediately."

.

The announcement might have been immediate (and noisy – the press were _delighted_ to have the news that two of Europe's top bladers were getting married, though there was some leaning on various editors so that the actual date was not released) but the arrangements took several months to complete. All the way through Sophie and Julian studiously avoided each other. It was easier that way than trying to navigate the quagmire of family politics to reach a place – any place – where their friendship could stand firm again.

The wedding itself, when it finally happened, was quiet, only witnessed by Wales, Klaus and their four respective families. Neither bride nor groom had the heart to invite any of their wider circle of friends to a wedding that was for business reasons rather than love. Even Wales and Klaus had been a difficult decision, despite them both knowing the way that the match had been arranged. Julian's brother stood as his best man, and Sophie had her sister and one of her cousins as bridesmaids. Sophie wore a dress of her mother's creation, asymmetric in design, cream dusted with minute embroidered flowers in silver and gold thread. As was tradition, she wore the full-length lace veil that had been passed down through her family, and when the vows were exchanged, Julian silently lifted it and leant forwards to kiss her gently on the lips. She saw the frustration in his eyes, and tried not to cry. She had wanted her wedding to be perfect. She had forgotten that she had duties to do, and duty came before love.

They didn't bother with a honeymoon, simply disappearing off to one of Julian's holiday homes for a couple of days. They spent their time either on the beach (cleared, as usual, by the strength of Julian's family name) or beyblading against the locals, who were very surprised to find a pair of world-champion level bladers descending on their town. Most evenings, Sophie would curl up in the armchair and read, and Julian would play the grand piano until one or both of them decided to go to bed – in separate rooms. To be any closer was more than they were prepared to do.

.

Time drifted by slowly. Most of the time, it was alright. Neither of them had to associate with the other outside of the time they spent as a team, and then Sophie was more than happy to pretend that Julian was nothing more than her team-mate, her captain, her friend.

There was a silent, tacit agreement between them that, should any affairs be begun, the other would be quietly informed and all press kept out of it. After all, they jointly decided, they deserved happiness. Julian went back to the tournaments in a managerial capacity, helping to fund them as the world slowly got back on its feet, and watching the young firecracker who was shooting up the ranks very closely. Sophie exchanged many letters, parcels, designs and ideas with a young man in a mountain fortress on the other side of the world.

But nothing came of it. They both came back home to the mansion alone, and sat down in front of the fire with their books and their music, quite content.

.

The first big news came when Tsubasa was made the Director of the WBBA, only five years after Nemesis was defeated and only three after Sophie and Julian's arranged marriage. The appointment wasn't the news, oh no. They'd been expecting the silver-haired young man to take over from Ryo for ages.

No, the news was the announcement that Beylin Temple were not going to be attending the local tag-team tournament because they were attending a wedding. And not even one of their members' weddings. This was the double wedding of Bao and Aguma to their own pre-arranged partners, Mara and Takara. Sophie wondered at the fact that she was genuinely happy for Bao, as not only was he now in the same situation as she was, but she had also been nursing a crush on him. It was quite the shock to her to discover that said crush had vanished some time ago, and she had no idea when.

But Bao and Aguma seemed to have been the lucky ones. When Team Excalibur went to battle in a charity tournament in China, Sophie managed to spot them in the crowd and wandered over to talk to them on the pretext of checking with Bao how their joint ideas were coming across. Instead, she found out that yes, the weddings might have been arranged, but the participants had been willing from the beginning; childhood sweethearts, almost.

When she heard this, Sophie couldn't help but feel jealous. If she followed her family, she would lose one of her best friends. But if she kept her friend, she would lose her family.

How was it that some people just seemed to get everything?

.

"Did you hear?" Julian said one day, looking over the top of his finance records at her. "Apparently there's been some big to-do down in South America. Their team broke up. The girl, Selen – she's run away."

"Run away?" Sophie sat up straight and looked at her husband. "Really?"

"Well, eloped," he admitted. "Her and that strange cat-boy. Sources think that they're going to try and open a cat shelter together."

Sophie frowned. "How odd," she said. "I was certain she was with Damian."

.

Things very slowly began to change in the house. Some nights, Sophie would put down her book and go to help with the financial records for their now-joint company. Others, he would put down the records and come and read with her. They started on separate chairs, but eventually they found themselves sitting side by side on the sofa.

It was on one of these occasions that Sophie suddenly laid her bookmark across her page and poked her husband – her _friend _– until he looked up at her.

"What is it, Sophie?"

"I've been invited to Mei-Mei's wedding," she said. "She wants me to be one of the bridesmaids."

She was half-expecting him to just say "Hmm, oh yes?" and move on, but instead he looked up at her. "May I come along?" he asked.

Surprised, she told him _yes_ before checking. Not that it mattered. Mei-Mei's wedding was one of the most beautiful ceremonies she had been to for many years, and it was clear that the groom utterly adored her – and was adored in return.

Julian returned from the wedding quiet and pensive, and didn't speak to her for a couple of days. She wasn't hurt – he'd not spoken for a week once – but she was worried. He was her closest friend and she didn't want him to be miserable. But soon enough he snapped out of it, and the daily grind was restored.

Except that, when he finished his books in the evening, he came over to sit on the sofa next to her, and fell asleep on her shoulder.

.

When Madoka announced to the world that she was retiring from mechanic bey repairs, there was an original outpouring of grief at the soon-to-be loss of a valued member of the beyblade community. But when she admitted that she would be going to live with _Dynamis_, the newspapers suddenly got more excited than Tithi in a beybattle.

"Why Dynamis?" Sophie asked when she went to visit.

"He just felt right," Madoka answered. "He was right for me, I was right for him. We work."

And Julian and Sophie just looked at each other and wondered if they would find someone somewhere who would "work" for them.

.

Lera and Aleksei were the next ones to fall into marriage, and this time both Sophie and Julian were directly invited. They went, watched the happy couple as they danced, and tried not to remember that they had a public meeting to go to the next day, when they would have to pretend to be happily married or else the press would go wild.

Partially to encourage the other couples and partially to have something to _do,_ Julian offered her his hand to dance the waltz, and she naturally accepted. He was an excellent dancer, after all, and she was almost his equal. They even got a round of applause at the end, which Sophie accepted gracefully and Julian ignored.

But when Sophie finally managed to sit down at the table again, she found that she couldn't look at the man who was her husband.

Her skin tingled where he had touched her hand.

.

"Sophie! Sophie! Where are you?"

The shout was loud and rather unexpected. Julian wasn't meant to be home from a meeting with the board of directors of his company for another hour. But there was something strange about his voice. He hadn't sounded angry or merely questioning. He'd sounded _scared._

"_Sophie!_"

That time, the shout had been unmistakably tinged with fear. Her heart almost stopped, and she ran for the stairs that would take her down to the ground floor. She only made it to the second landing when he took three huge, bounding steps up the stairs and caught her up in his arms, holding her away from him for a second as if checking her over for injuries before pulling her back into a bone-crushing hug. For a moment she just stood there, stunned.

"I thought I'd lost you," he said, and he was trembling.

"J-Julian?"

He took a deep, shuddering breath. "A gang of bandits broke into the estate down at the far end. I thought that the servants would deal with them, so I left it and went out. But when I came back, the front window was shattered and the door was wide open and the police were outside. I... I thought you'd... when you didn't answer, I... Sophie, I'm so glad you're safe."

She couldn't say anything, but wound her arms tighter around his waist, drawing comfort from his strength. She had heard the commotion downstairs and had realised immediately that something was wrong, but when the police had arrived she had decided that it was probably safe to come out of her room, where she had bolted herself in at the first realisation of trouble. Julian had arrived only minutes after the police cars.

She pressed her face against his shoulder, only for him to release her from the hug and gently grip her chin in one hand, tilting it up so that she was looking him in the eyes.

Then, to her complete surprise, he kissed her.

It wasn't one of the faint pecks that they gave each other during public appearances when it was called for. It wasn't the apologetic kiss he had given her on her wedding day. It was a proper kiss, a kiss that should only be given between spouses, soul-mates, _lovers._ Something in her chest suddenly loosened and she took one of her arms from around his waist and instead twined it around his neck, pulling him closer.

A few seconds later, he broke the kiss and pulled away, face brilliant scarlet. For the longest time, neither of them said anything. They couldn't even break eye-contact.

"Did... did you really mean to do that?" she asked, not wanting to move but at the same time knowing how awkward this could get any second.

His eyes were wide and brilliant. "Yes," he breathed. "Yes, I meant to do that."

"Good," she said, suddenly confident – suddenly _happy._ "Then you can do it again if you like."

When he did exactly that, she hummed happily and melted into him, every part of her wondering how on earth she had got here but knowing full well that – just like Madoka had said – this was _right, _this was _good_, this was exactly where she was meant to be in that moment in time.

He let her go a second time and stepped back, leaving her standing on her own. "I don't understand," he said quietly. "I thought... I thought this couldn't work. We were too different, we were just going to be friends... and then _this _happened."

But it _was_ working – at least, if the faint flush of red through his cheeks was a blush and not fever.

Somehow, Julian Konzern and Sophie had managed to fall in love, without ever meaning or even _wanting_ to.

.

After that, things suddenly got a lot easier. They no longer slept in separate rooms, though neither of them were quite ready to graduate to the same bed even though they were actually married. They were still feeling their way, not sure of the path, but sure of the one standing beside them, ready to catch them if they fell. Love was a scary place when they had been fighting it for so long.

"Sophie," Julian said one evening as they sat together on the sofa. "I've been thinking. When we got married, it... wasn't the greatest of successes, was it?"

She laughed and tucked her head onto his shoulder. "No, you can say that again. Why?"

He stretched his long legs out towards the crackling fire. "I was wondering if we should have a vow-renewal ceremony now that we... well, now that we actually mean the vows. One that our friends can all come to – a proper celebration."

"Like we're having our wedding all over again," she breathed, turning to look at him with shining eyes. "Oh, Julian, that's _perfect._"

Considering the enthusiasm with which she kissed him, he believed her.

.

As it turned out, planning a vow-renewal ceremony was even more complicated than the original wedding had been. First of all, whilst their parents whole-heartedly supported the endeavour, Sophie and Julian wanted it to be _their_ day, and so they were going to organise the whole thing themselves. It meant many days out to find the best venue, long and complicated phone-calls to caterers, flower-arrangers, kitchen staff, tailors, dressmakers, milliners, hotels and more, and more than one argument over the length of the guest list. But they always made up again afterwards.

"Do you know if anyone's seen Gingka recently?" Sophie asked one evening, looking up from the pile of invitations she was ticking off. Julian frowned.

"I don't think he's been in any tournaments on any level since the Nemesis Crisis," he said. "I think he's been _seen_ occasionally, but he's travelling around the country. Send it to Tsubasa, see if he can find out where he's gone."

She nodded and noted down the address on the outside of the envelope. "I think that's all of them." She put the pen down with a sigh. "Perfect. Now all we have to do is make sure they catch the evening post."

"I'll do that," Julian offered without looking up from his list. "We've definitely got enough room for all of them to stay?"

"Easily," she confirmed. "Even if they bring their families, we'll have enough room."

"Perfect." He stood up and stretched. "I've been stuck inside all day; let's both walk out to the town and get these invitations posted, shall we?"

.

The guests started arriving almost a week before the celebration, due to the time when they were able to get away from their work.

"Sophie!" Hikaru exclaimed as she walked through the main door. "It's wonderful to see you again."

Hyoma, pale-blue hair now worn rather longer than before, held his hand out to Julian. "I'm Hyoma," he introduced himself. "I don't think we've met, but I've watched your battles for a long time."

"And I yours," Julian replied. "Come with me; your room is up these stairs..."

.

To Sophie's surprise, the next group to arrive came from America. Masamune, King, Chris, Zeo and Toby all arrived at once, King grinning as he shook Julian's hand. Sophie hid a smile as she remembered the time when she had wondered if she was in love with King. After all, the young European was so very similar to her husband - but Julian was Julian and King was King, and she only loved one of them.

.

When the large group from Japan and Africa arrived, there was almost no controlling the Americans. Somehow, someone had managed to find _Kyouya_ of all people, and had strong-armed him into appearing (Sophie strongly suspected a mixture of Hikaru, Madoka, Tsubasa and Benkei). Madoka, arm in arm with tall Dynamis, shook her head as King instantly challenged Kyouya to a rematch of their long-ago battle after the Nemesis Crisis.

.

The astronomers arrived next, Aleksei, Nowaguma, Lera and Yuki all together. Lera was very pregnant, but that didn't stop her from keeping tabs on all of 'her' boys almost twenty-four seven. Sophie assumed that she was used to doing it after years of tracking them to within millimetres on board space-craft.

.

They were all sitting in the front room when the butler looked in to tell them that the group from China had finally arrived. All the women greeted Mei-Mei happily, fully aware that despite promises none of them had managed to keep in touch since Mei-Mei's own wedding to the young brown-and-yellow-haired man beside her. On the other hand, Sora didn't even notice that Julian was offering him his hand to shake, as he was too busy staring around the enormous hallway. Da Shan clipped him around the head to get him to pay attention.

Right on the heels of that group came the other half of the Chinese group; the Beylin Fist. Julian had been very surprised when Sophie had insisted that Bao was invited to the ceremony, and of course wherever Bao went Aguma followed. The two Beylin Fist leaders also had their own wives with them, and Bao had his tiny one-year-old daughter asleep against his shoulder when they arrived.

"She's called Zhi," he said when Sophie asked, every inch the proud father.

.

The last people to arrive were (strangely) Wales and Klaus, considering that they lived closest to the pair. When Klaus spotted his old friend Aguma, his eyes immediately lit up, which made Bao and Wales exchange exasperated glances.

"Go on," Bao sighed. "If you're going to fight, just... not in the garden? Zhi's asleep."

.

Sophie couldn't really be _nervous_ about the vow-renewal. After all, she'd done it all before, years ago. But at the same time, it was all different. This time, the friends she had made over the years were all around her. This time, she had bridesmaids who hadn't been pulled from the ranks of her family members at the last minute to make up numbers. This time, she was actually going to mean it.

"Ready to go?" Madoka asked her quietly. "Dynamis says they're ready for you."

Sophie drew in a deep breath, feeling the fabric of her golden silk dress move with the flow of air. Tiny gold and silver flowers, just like the ones that had been embroidered on her first dress, were woven into her hair, but the dress itself had tiny pearls and crystals as decoration. The veil, not traditional but somehow feeling necessary, was sheer gold chiffon with scalloped edges in gilded thread and beads. It was a masterpiece of design, and it was all Sophie's, right down to some of the stitching.

She had been the first to get married, barely eighteen and still completely unaware of what love really was. And now it seemed that she was going to be the last out of the girls to get married as well – married properly, that was. In its own way, this was one of the biggest steps in her life.

All the people who had come to support her and Julian here had taught both of them so much about life, and about love.

The group from the Dungeon Gym had taught them that no matter what, true friends stood by you. All of them had learned that the hard way – Chris and King through abandonment, Masamune, Zeo and Toby through illness and mental subjugation.

Hikaru and Hyoma had taught them to be steadfast, and to hold on in the face of adversity.

Madoka and Dynamis had taught them how to predict each other's every move, just by knowing the other inside out and back to front.

Lera and Yuki had taught them that sometimes your passion could be unexpected and unusual – and that it wasn't always impossible to follow your dreams, even to the stars.

Mei-Mei had taught her the value of saying _no_ when you weren't sure. Sora taught Julian the value of never giving up. Together, they had taught the pair how to laugh at themselves, and how to make up after a fight.

Kyouya had taught them to be fierce. Benkei had taught them to follow each other even into the valley of the shadow of death, because at least then there was someone to talk to. Yuu had taught them to be gentle. Tithi had taught them to be kind. Kenta had taught them that nothing was impossible. Tsubasa had taught them to be honourable and to keep to the rules. Aguma had taught them never to judge by appearances.

And Bao?

Bao had silently placed a strong metal box on the table in front of her the night before, a box covered in the finest silver filigree designs. Inside, safely wrapped in layer upon layer of cloth for protection, was the most beautiful glass cake-topper she had ever seen. The woman's dress was an exact replica of her own, and the man was the spitting image of Julian. She had recognised the handiwork instantly – Bao's own, and the box was Aguma's through and through.

"Glass princess, you and your husband began the trend of investing in indigenous crafts, and almost single-handedly saved the market," Bao told her when she had tried to protest that he couldn't give her this, it was far too much (part of her mind burned when she realised that he was still calling her by that old name). "Because of you, the Hundred Schools of Beylin Fist are now renowned for the beauty they produce as well as their strength. We owe much of our existence to you. We'd have starved last winter without those funds from selling the stuff we made."

"And what he's not telling you is that it's his masterpiece," Aguma whispered to her when Bao was out of earshot. "Nearly fifty hours of work in that to make it perfect."

The gift had been nearly priceless. But the friendship and the love offered to her so freely by not only Bao and Aguma but by every single person who had turned up on their doorstep with bags – and often families of their own – in hand was beyond all price.

Every blader – every friend – had always had something to offer them.

And so this time, when she walked down that aisle and let the veil fall at last and said _"I do,_" she would say it with all of her heart.

* * *

_Well, that's the end. I'd be interested to find out what your favourite pairings/chapters were, so go ahead and tell me! _

_A formal request for critique on the whole of the fic – I'd like to know if there's any areas where you'd have liked to see something improved/suggestions for how I could make things better etc. I want to learn and get better. _

_On a personal level, I still ship Hikaru and Hyoma, but I now also ship Mei-Mei/Sora, Selen/Johannes with past Selen/Damian, Sophie/Julian, Lera/Yuki, and Madoka/Dynamis or Madoka/Gingka depending on the situation (no Madoka/Gingka in this chapter, for example, because Gingka is missing...). Talk about crack!_

_These pairings may make their way into some of my other fics as background, especially if my characters are older._

_On another note, like I said earlier I will not be uploading very much (please note, I'm not saying I won't upload AT ALL, just hardly anything) for a while as I have university to pass. Normal (or better!) service will resume once I've stopped procrastinating on my dissertation._


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